A 64-year-old woman has given birth to healthy twins after her second successful pregnancy at an advanced age, a doctor in northern Spain has said.

Enrique Martin, medical director at Recoletas hospital, said on Thursday that the babies, delivered by caesarean section on Tuesday, were “perfectly healthy”. The twins are a boy, born weighing 5.3 pounds (2.4kg), and a girl who weighed 4.9 pounds (2.2kg).

According to Spanish newspaper Diario de Burgos, their mother had her first child at 58, but her daughter has been in the custody of local authorities since 2014 because she did not attend school and was not properly cared for.

The woman became pregnant again after seeking IVF treatment in the US. She is being identified only by her initials, MIA.

Martin confirmed that the hospital was discussing the woman’s ability and resources to take care of the babies with the regional government’s social services. The doctor said he was proud of his team’s achievement in providing an adequate medical response to a “difficult situation”.

“She showed up four months’ pregnant at the gates of our hospital and all we could do was face the situation and react,” he said.

Laws in Spain do not place limits on the maximum age for assisted reproduction, but the Spanish Fertility Society discourages treatments for women aged over 50.

Last year, a 62-year-old doctor who specialises in IVF treatments, from the Spanish city of Lugo, appeared before cameras holding her own third baby in her arms.

Lina Alvarez became a symbol for many older women wishing to conceive, but she was also the target of criticism.

Critics have also referred to the case of Carmen Bousada, a woman from Cádiz who paid a US fertility clinic to help her become a mother at the age of 66. She died of cancer in 2009, less than three years after giving birth to twins. According to local media reports, the children are now in the care of Bousada’s nephew.