Chinese Woman Gives Birth at the Age of 67

Most mothers call their children a miracle but that rings even more true for this woman in China who gave birth on Friday. She was 67 years old.

The woman, only identified as Tian, is from Shandong province in East China. She is now the country’s oldest new mother after giving birth to her baby girl at the Zaozhuang Maternity and Child Health Hospital, the South China Morning Post reported.

She replaced the previous record held by a woman in Changchun, Jilin province who gave birth to a baby boy at 64 years old in 2016.

Two doctors, Wang Xietong and Liu Chengwen, delivered Tian’s baby via cesarean section. She was 36 weeks pregnant at the time and had high blood pressure. The baby, who weighed 2.6 kilograms (5 lbs, 11 oz) was immediately brought to the intensive care unit for monitoring, according to the Zaozhuang Express.

Tian told reporters that she knew she was physically capable of having a child but nonetheless, the procedure was stressful.

“It was painful, too painful. I couldn’t even keep my eyes open,” she said.

She only discovered she was pregnant after going to a hospital for a health checkup, telling reporters, "I didn't want it, initially."

Tian’s 68-year-old husband, identified as Huang, said that although the baby was not planned, she was still “sent by heaven.”

According to a report by Qilu Evening News, the couple named their daughter Tianci, which translates to “given by God.”

Huang is a lawyer while Tian is a retired nurse. They have a daughter and a son who was born in 1977, two years before China imposed a one-child policy. They also have several grandchildren, the oldest aged 18 years old.

Their older children were initially worried after finding out that their mother was pregnant. This was echoed on social media, where many debated on whether it was right to have a child in your 60s, because this might affect a person's ability to raise a child.

Tian is not the oldest woman in the world to give birth. That record goes to Indian woman Mangayamma Yaramati, who gave birth to twins in September at 74 years old. She conceived them through in vitro fertilisation. Her husband was 82 years old and suffered from a stroke the following day.

Photo by Luma Pimentel on Unsplash

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