This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A 73-year-old woman in southern India who has given birth to healthy twin girls described motherhood as “the happiest time of my life”.

The babies were delivered through caesarean section on Thursday. Uma Shankar, the woman’s doctor, told the Guardian the mother and her children were in good health.

Play Video 0:41 73-year-old woman gives birth to twin girls in India - video

Mangayamma Yaramati and her husband, Sitarama Rajarao, 82, from Andhra Pradesh, said they had always wanted to become parents but were unable to conceive. Yaramati told BBC Telugu they had been stigmatised in their community because they were childless.

“They would call me a childless lady,” she said, adding: “We tried many times and saw numerous doctors, so this is the happiest time of my life.” Yaramati had a baby shower this week, before the delivery.

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Shankar said his patient was cared for “in the scientific way”. “During the treatment we had three groups of doctors: one took care of her general health, one took care of her nutritional status and one to took care of her pregnancy.” These three areas were monitored every day, he added.

Manngayamma started the menopause 25 years ago, and so an egg was taken from a donor and fertilised with Rajarao’s sperm through IVF, Shankar told the Hindustan Times. “Luckily, she conceived in the first cycle and was found to be pregnant in January.”|

The twins’ father told BBC Telugu: “We are incredibly happy.”

Shankar said many of the women who came for IVF had had children but they were killed in road accidents. “They come for IVF at a later age. We have many women from the 40-50 age group.” The social disapproval associated with not having children was a problem, he added.

Manngayamma may be the oldest woman to conceive. Shankar said according to her patient’s birth certificate, she was born in 1946.

In 2016, another Indian woman, Daljinder Kaur, who was thought to have been 72 when she gave birth to a boy.

Asked how they would care for their children, Rajarao said: “Nothing is in our hands. Whatever should happen will happen. It is all in the hands of God.”