60-year-old woman gives birth to twin boys

updated 4:04 a.m. ET Feb. 6, 2009

CALGARY, Alberta - A 60-year-old woman gave birth to twin boys after undergoing fertility treatments, Canadian national media reported Thursday.

Ranjit Hayer became a mother for the first time on Tuesday at Calgary's Foothills Hospital, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

The Canadian Press news agency said the Calgary Health Region confirmed a 60-year-old woman had given birth.

Hayer told the CBC from her hospital bed that she had tried for decades to conceive naturally and with medical intervention and eventually went to India for fertility treatments.

The broadcaster said she became pregnant with triplets, but one had to be terminated because of medical problems.

Giving birth at that age is rare but not unheard of. Hayer gave birth less than two years after Frieda Birnbaum, 60, of Saddle River, N.J., had twins boys after undergoing in-vitro fertilization.

'Mischief'
Still, Hayer's obstetrician, Colin Birch, told CBC that he was initially disbelieving.

"I thought it was a joke because the referral said 60-year-old patient with triplets, and I thought one of my colleagues or somebody's just playing jokes with me or up to mischief and then actually the patient turned up in my office," recalled Birch.

According to the CBC, the Alberta Health Services said the Hayer and babies — born seven weeks prematurely via Caesarean section — were in good condition Thursday.

A growing number of women have turned to fertility treatments in India, where there are relatively lax regulations for such procedures.

Rajo Devi, who claimed to be about 70 years old, gave birth in November to her first child, said Dr. Anurag Bishnoi of India's National Fertility Center in northern Haryana state. However, it was impossible to verify whether Devi is the world's oldest woman to give birth as she has no birth certificate.

In 2006, Carmela Bousada of Spain became what was believed to be the oldest new mother when she delivered twin boys at age 66.

Before that, Romanian citizen Adriana Iliescu gave birth to a baby girl in January 2005, also at 66. Bousada was 130 days older than Iliescu when she gave birth.

More on fertility treatments

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