World's oldest mother, 74, and her husband both in intensive care days after giving birth to twins via IVF
The world's oldest parents, Raja Rao, 78, and Erramatti Mangayamma, 74, are both in intensive care after the birth of their twin girls in India earlier this month.
MEAWW previously reported that Mangayamma became the oldest woman to ever to give birth after she delivered twin full-term babies by cesarean section at a private hospital in Guntur in the state of Andhra Pradesh, on September 5.
Dr. Sanakayyala Umashankar, director of the hospital, said the surgery had gone "smoothly, both mother and infants are healthy and have no complications whatsoever."
However, Mangayamma's age meant she had to be taken into the intensive care unit soon after giving birth to "come out of the stress she had undergone," according to the Sun. Rao, who was ecstatic after his daughters' birth, reportedly collapsed a day later after suffering a heart attack and had to also be admitted into the intensive care unit.
Both have remained in the ICU since, with their conditions currently unclear. Doctors have not released any information but have insisted that both are stable.
Mangayamma and Rao had been trying to conceive throughout their 57-year marriage, consulting with several doctors and religious leaders in the process, and were given a ray of hope when the former came to know about a woman in her neighborhood becoming pregnant at the age of 55 years through In Vitro Fertilization (IVF).
"People looked at me with accusing eyes, as if I had committed a sin," Mangayamma had said about her inability to have children. "Neighbors would call me ‘godralu’ [a curse word for a childless woman]. However, my husband stood by me like a rock."
She had gone through menopause 25 years ago, so an egg was obtained from a viable donor and then fertilized with her husband's sperm. She became pregnant after just one cycle of IVF, and a team of 10 doctors helped her through her pregnancy and the subsequent delivery.
"I cannot express my feeling in words," she said, after giving birth. "These babies complete me. My six-decade-long wait has finally come to an end. Now, no one can call me infertile anymore."
While the birth was called a "medical miracle," the ethics of it have been called into question because of Mangayamma's advanced age and the risks involved in following through with such a pregnancy.
Dr Umashankar revealed he was tricked into believing that the mother was in her 60s. "It was only by chance, after she had conceived, that her husband let out accidentally to one of the nurses her real age," he said. "I was livid!"