A 73-year-old woman in India has just set a Guinness record for being the oldest person to give birth. Her name is Mangayamma Erramatti and she gave birth to TWINS on Thursday.
Once her age is certified, it should make her the oldest woman ever to give birth. The current Guinness world record is a woman in Spain who gave birth when she was almost 67 years old. That happened back in 2006.
Erramatti and her 80-year-old husband have always wanted kids but have never been able to conceive. They wanted to do IVF, and around eight months ago finally worked. The couple used a donor egg, and sperm from the husband.
She was in the hospital for the entire pregnancy, and last week gave birth via C-section to two healthy girls.
Erramatti is also doing well, but the doctors will monitor her closely for a few weeks.
I am so conflicted on this...on the one hand, I want to congratulate new parents on the birth of a child, especially a child they'd been wishing for their entire adult lives. But on the other hand, isn't it pretty irresponsible to have children at such an advanced age? At 73 and 80, they probably won't be around long enough to see their children graduate high school. And if they do, their health will likely not be strong enough to take an active role in raising their kids. Having kids is WORK, and I can't picture a couple septegenarians running around the house chasing after twins. It makes me wonder about the quality of life for the kids, you know? And for that matter, I'm honestly surprised that a doctor was even willing to do IVF for a couple their age! Wondering how y'all feel about this.
[CNN]