Yerrametti Mangayamma and her husband Raja, who was 82 years old then, were overjoyed when they found out they were about to have a baby. But a year later, Raja passed away due to a heart attack.
The 73-year-old also revealed how she overcame the gossip from her community in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and how her twin daughters Rama Tulasi and Uma Tulasi helped her through the grief.
Mangayamma also shared that it felt incredible and unbelievable to have her first kids at the age of 73.
Yerramatti married Raja in 1962 when she was 16 and he was 25. The couple desperately wanted to give birth in a natural way. However, they were never successful despite all efforts to examine and take medicine.
In 2018, when she was 72 years old, she heard that a woman in her 30s in her village had given birth through IVF. Afterward, she came to her for advice. Because she had no eggs left, the doctor used donated eggs to combine with Raja’s sperm and implanted in her uterus.
“I WEPT WITH JOY TO HEAR THERE WAS A CHANCE I’D CONCEIVE. THE TREATMENT WAS EXPENSIVE AT £660 A CYCLE, BUT IT WAS WORTH OUR SAVINGS.”
On September 5, 2019, twin girls were born at 38 weeks by cesarean section.
“I WAS THE HAPPIEST I’D EVER BEEN, AND RAJA, THEN 82, COULDN’T BELIEVE HE WAS GOING TO BE A DAD.
“ON SEPTEMBER 5, 2019, OUR TWIN GIRLS WERE DELIVERED BY CAESAREAN AT 38 WEEKS. WE NAMED THEM RAMA TULASI AND UMA TULASI AND THEY WEIGHED JUST OVER 4LB EACH.”
However, whether she is the oldest mother to give birth in the world is yet to be specified.
