Srinagar: A woman from Sailan in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch has become one of the oldest mothers in the world after giving birth to a baby girl aged 65.
The mother, who has not been named, gave birth on Boxing Day at the hospital in a remote part of Jammu and Kashmir, reported Daily Mail.
Father Hakim Din, who is aged 80, thanked Allah for the ‘precious gift’ of a baby daughter but said the couple will need financial help to raise her.
Hakim claims to be 80 and his wife claims to be 65. If the case is confirmed they will become the oldest parents to conceive naturally in the world
He added that the couple already have a son who was born between eight and 10 years ago.
Dr Shabir Sidiqui, a maternity specialist from Kashmir, told local reporters that the case is the ‘rarest of the rare’.
‘Usually menopause sets in on an average at the age of 47 years in India. Once it sets in, there is no possibility (of giving birth). But this is a rare one,’ he said.
Doctors at the hospital where the birth occurred said both mother and baby are healthy and doing well.
If the lady’s claims are true, then it would make her the oldest mother in the world to have conceived the baby naturally.
Most women giving birth after the age of 50 rely on IVF treatment, having already gone through the menopause.
The world’s current oldest verified mother is Maria del Carmen Bousada de Lara, from Spain, who gave birth aged 66 to twins via IVF in 2006.