Woman gives birth to her first baby at age 70

After two years of IVF treatment, Daljinder Kaur has given birth to a healthy baby boy.

It was the first successful pregnancy for Daljinder and her husband, who have been married for 46 years.

Daljinder underwent two years of IVF treatment to get pregnancy, using donor eggs at a fertility clinic in Haryana, India.

She has named her “healthy and hearty” baby Arman, which means “wish, longing” - a fitting choice for a long-wished for child.

Speaking to Agence France-Presse, the mother said: “God heard our prayers. My life feels complete now.

“I am looking after the baby all by myself. I feel so full of energy.”

She added that her husband Mohinder, a farmer, is helping out as much as possible with their new baby.

“My husband is also very caring and helps me as much as he can,” she told them.

Anurag Bishnoi, embryologist and owner of the National Fertility and Test Tube Baby centre in Hisar, explained that he was initially reluctant to perform the procedure due to Daljinder’s age.

However, after discovering that she was fit and healthy, he decided to give her a chance of “great happiness”.

And, to those who say that IVF in older women is unethical, he said firmly: “My point is if you put a restriction [on receiving IVF treatment] of 45 or 50 years, you will have to put a restriction on the males also.

“If they are talking about ethics, the [age] should be the same for both.”

He added: “People say, what will happen to the child once we die. But I have full faith in God.

“God is omnipotent and omnipresent, he will take care of everything.”

However, it’s a very different story here in the UK.

New research conducted by the Private Pregnancy UK Show reveals that, when it comes to having babies, British women believe that 44 is “too old” and should be the cut-off point.

This is despite social factors such as focusing on careers and not finding the right partner, as well as advancements in medicine and science, playing crucial roles in the surge in older women having babies.

The research aims to start a debate on how far medical intervention and assisted conception can go in aiding women who wish to preserve their fertility or delay having children, as well as highlighting the need for increased fertility awareness for adult women and calls for sex education to include information on fertility options.

The five most cited reasons as to why women believe 44 should be the cut-off age are:

The research also reveals that almost three-quarters (74%) of women believe that there isn’t enough fertility education available for women about not “leaving it too late” to start a family, or the options now available to help preserve a woman’s fertility and likewise, to assist with conception.

The majority of women (75%) believe that the responsibility to educate women about these time-sensitive issues lies with government health officials.

Dr Amin Gorgy, fertility consultant and IVF specialist at The Fertility & Gynaecology Academy explains: “The ideal age for women to become pregnant is in their twenties and early thirties. A woman's fertility potential declines rapidly after the age of 35 and drops even faster after the age of 40.

“Indeed, successful egg freezing through vitrification has made it possible for women to postpone conception to later in life but as a society, we should be encouraging couples to have children at a younger age, in fact, I recommend that couples should aim to complete their families by the age of 35."

Dr Gorgy continues: “There isn’t enough education available to women, many of whom still believe they can go on forever.

“Theoretically, through egg donation and using eggs frozen at an earlier age, women can conceive at any age, in fact, the receptivity of the womb for implanting embryos declines only after the age of 54 but usually, we take 50 as the age limit for assisted conception and only under special circumstances will we consider someone beyond the age of 50.

“IVF must be put into perspective if used after the age of 35 as the chances of having a live birth with an IVF cycle declines dramatically with age, for example, there is a 20% success rate at the age of 40 which falls to just 1% above the age of 45.”

Dr Gorgy will be joining a wider panel of experts who will be hosting this debate in a women’s healthcare Question Time seminar on Sunday 22 May at the Private Pregnancy UK Show.

How old do you think is too old to have a baby?

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