NEW DELHI: An Indian woman who gave birth at the age of 70 said on Tuesday she was not too old to become a first-time mother, adding that her life was now complete.

Daljinder Kaur gave birth last month to a boy following two years of IVF treatment at a fertility clinic in the northern state of Haryana with her 79-year-old husband.

Kaur said the couple, married for 46 years, had almost lost hope of ever having a child and had faced ridicule in a country where infertility is sometimes seen as a curse from God.

“God heard our prayers. My life feels complete now. I am looking after the baby all by myself, I feel so full of energy. My husband is also very caring and helps me as much as he can,” Kaur said from the northern city of Amritsar.

“When we saw the (IVF) advert, we thought we should also give it a try as I badly wanted to have a baby of my own,” she said.

Kaur put her age at about 70, a common scenario in India where many people don’t have birth certificates, while the clinic said in a statement that she was 72.

The baby was conceived using the couple’s own egg and sperm and was now “healthy and hearty” after weighing just two kilogrammes at birth on April 19, the National Fertility and Test Tube centre said.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2016