Woman Gives Birth In Her 70s For First Time, and Even Breastfeeds
She is weary that she might not live to see her son grow up.
A woman in India has become one of the oldest first-time moms in the world after giving birth to a healthy baby boy.
Daljinder Kaur gave birth to her first child after two years of IVF treatments. On April 19, she gave birth to her son, Arman Singh.
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Kaur, whose exact age is unknown, says she is about 70 years old while the fertility clinic has listed her as 72. The new mom does not have a birth certificate to confirm her age.
Kaur has been married to her husband, Mohinder Singh Gill, 79, for 46 years but they never had any children.
The couple, who are farmers from the northern state of Haryana, have always wanted to be parents.
“Due to a family feud we never focused on our dream to become parents,” he told Barcroft TV. “In September 2014, my wife gave me an ultimatum and said she would go the National Fertility and Test Tube Baby Centre in Hisar, Haryana, independently if I did not accompany her.”
Doctors told the woman she was too old to give birth and relatives said the treatments were too costly that they should adopt a needy child.
Her doctor, Anurag Bishnoi, was reluctant to allow his patient to undergo treatments, according to reports.
“At one point the doctor told me that he had never met a woman more stubborn than me who was clearly wasting her money on the treatment, but I think my stubbornness and persistence paid off as I am a mother today,” she told Barcroft.
The ecstatic mother is breastfeeding and plans to do so for as long as her body allows.
“The milk flow isn’t erratic considering my age,” she said.
According to The Guardian, the couple has tried to have children on their own for decades but could not conceive. In the 1980s, they adopted a boy who went to study in America and never returned.
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The quest to become parents was also elevated due to a family feud.
Bishnoi told The Guardian: “They also had some family problems. A person who is infertile is not given a piece of land or any property by his father. He won, and then he got this piece of land and he got the money for the treatment.”
As the elderly parents cherish their newborn son, who was born a healthy four pounds, they are realistic that they might not live long enough to see him become an adult.
“I was worried that I’d die by the time my son grows up, but Dr Bishnoi asked me to be positive and instead concentrate on educating and giving Arman a bright future,” she told Barcroft.
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