Teacher, 65, becomes world’s oldest mother

A 65-YEAR-OLD retired schoolteacher has given birth to a baby boy and become the world’s oldest mother.

According to press reports, Satyabhama Mahapatra, from Nayagarh in Orissa, India, has beaten the previous record holder by three years.

The boy, reportedly healthy and weighing 6lb 8oz, was born by Caesarean section at a private home, according to the Times of India.

He was not conceived naturally, and is the result of a combination of an egg from the woman’s 26-year-old niece and her husband’s sperm.

The pregnancy did suffer a number of complications and Satyabhama was hospitalised for the final three months of the pregnancy.

Hospital authorities say they tried to discourage her and her husband Krishnachandra from trying for a baby in this way, but they refused to be discouraged.

The case is made all the more remarkable by the fact that average life expectancy for an Indian woman is just over 63.

If the reports are confirmed, Satyabhama will have snatched the title of world’s oldest mum from the previous record-holder, a 62-year-old woman from Italy, who conceived using IVF treatment with the help of Professor Severino Antinori.

Her successful pregnancy in 1994 catapulted the controversial Italian professor onto the world stage and provided weight to his claims that he was going to clone the first human.

In December of last year, he said the world’s first cloned infant would be born in January 2003 as a result of cloning programmes under way in Russia and China. This claim has not been substantiated.