74-year-old woman in India gives birth to twin girls

A 74-year-old woman in southern India gave birth to twin girls Thursday, according to The Washington Post,

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The children were conceived through in vitro fertilization, The Times of India reported.

The woman, Mangayamma Yaramati, provided a birth certificate verifying her age, Sankkayala Uma Shankar, the doctor who delivered the babies, told the Post. She and her husband, 82-year-old Sitarama Rajarao, had been childless during their 57-year marriage, the newspaper reported.

The babies were delivered by cesarean section by a team of four doctors in a hospital located in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, The Times of India reported.

The doctors said Yaramati is the oldest person in the world to give birth, but there has been no documentation to verify that, according to the Post.

"The surgery went smoothly. Both mother and the infants are healthy and have no complications whatsoever. However, the mother has been taken to (the) intensive care unit to come out of the stress she had undergone for the last few hours," Shankar told the Hindustan Times.

Yaramati said she and her husband had been stigmatized in their village for being childless, according to the BBC.

"We tried many times and saw numerous doctors," Yaramati told the network. "So this is the happiest time of my life."

"We are the happiest couple on earth today," Rajarao told The Times of India. "We have our own children."

Friday, Rajarao suffered a stroke and was taken to a hospital, the BBC reported.

Because Yaramati had gone through menopause, a donor's egg was fertilized with Rajarao's sperm and then implanted in the new mother, doctors told the Hindustan Times.

Asked about their advanced age, amid questions over who would take care of the children if either or both parents become sick or die, Rajarao said "nothing is in our hands."

"Whatever should happen will happen. It is all in the hands of God," Rajarao told the BBC.

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