Woman, 70, has first baby after 46 years of marriage

Mohinder Singh Gill and his wife, Daljinder Kaur, had been childless until they used in vitro fertilization to conceive their son Armaan. NATIONAL FERTILITY CENTER / AFP

An Indian woman who gave birth at age 70 said on Tuesday she was not too old to become a first-time mother, adding that her life was now complete.

Daljinder Kaur gave birth last month to a boy after two years of in vitro fertilization treatment at a fertility clinic in the northern state of Haryana with her 79-year-old husband.

Kaur said the couple, married for 46 years, had almost lost hope of having a child and had faced ridicule in a country where infertility is sometimes seen as a curse from God.

"God heard our prayers. My life feels complete now. I am looking after the baby all by myself, I feel so full of energy. My husband is also very caring and helps me as much as he can," Kaur said.

"When we saw the (IVF) advert, we thought we should give it a try as I badly wanted to have a baby of my own," she said.

Kaur put her age at about 70, a common scenario in India where many people don't have birth certificates, while the clinic said in a statement that she was 72.

The baby, conceived using the couple's own egg and sperm, is now "healthy and hearty" after weighing just 2 kilograms at birth on April 19, the National Fertility and Test Tube Center said.

Kaur's husband, Mohinder Singh Gill, who owns a farm outside Amritsar, said he was unfazed about their age, adding that God would watch over their child. The boy has been named Armaan.

"People ask what will happen to the child once we die. But I have full faith in God. He is omnipotent and omnipresent — he will take care of everything," he said.

Anurag Bishnoi, who runs the fertility clinic, said he was initially skeptical about going ahead with IVF, but tests showed Kaur was able to carry the unborn child.

"I first tried to avoid the case because she looked very frail. Then we made her undergo all the tests, and once all the results were OK we went ahead," the doctor said.