WINNIPEG (CBC) - A woman in India, believed to be 70 years old, has become the world's oldest new mother after giving birth to twins in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, reports the Scotsman, an Edinburgh-based newspaper, The Scotsman.

Omkari Panwar and her 77-year-old husband Charan Singh Panwar, a retired farmer already have two grown-up daughters, and five grandchildren, but were desperate for a son and heir.

She underwent in-vitro fertilization, after which the couple's wish was granted when the twins, a boy and a girl, were delivered by Caesarian section, the paper says.

Desperate for male heir

Panwar mortgaged his land, sold his buffaloes, spent his life savings and took out a credit-card loan to fund the IVF treatment, which cost the equivalent of $9,000 US, the paper says.

"At last we have a son and heir," he said. "We prayed to God, went to saints and visited religious places to pray for an heir.

"We kept no stone unturned and God has rewarded us. The treatment cost me a fortune but the birth of a son makes it all worthwhile. I can die a happy man and a proud father," the paper states.

The twins - born one month premature and each weighing two pounds, nine ounces - are healthy and expected to survive, according to doctors at Jaswant Roy Speciality Hospital, where they are in incubators, the paper goes onto add.

The world's previous oldest new mother was Adriana Iliescu, a Romanian who was 66 when she gave birth to a daughter in 2005.

After being told she had beaten the record, Panwar was indifferent. "I didn't know that," she said. "But if it is true, so what? It is of little benefit to me. I have not even seen my own children yet - they were taken to a specialist hospital while I was still unconscious.

"I just want to see my new babies and care for them while I am still able," the paper quotes her as saying.

National Shame

According to India's 2001 census, the country has a national average of 927 girls born for every 1,000 boys. The British medical journal the Lancet recently estimated that 500,000 female fetuses are aborted each year in India solely because of their gender.

In April, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh termed female foeticide and infanticide "a national shame."

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