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Beijing (CNN) - A 67-year-old retired doctor gave birth in China, which makes her the country's oldest new mother.
The woman, surnamed Tian, gave birth to a girl on Friday at the Zaozhuang Maternity and Child Health Hospital, where she had worked as a doctor before retiring, in the northeastern province of Shandong.
A hospital spokeswoman told CNN that Tian became naturally pregnant after using his medical knowledge to self-administer traditional Chinese fertility treatments.
The baby was born through a C-section. "We were very lucky, given that the mother was at an advanced maternal age and had several complications," Liu Wencheng, the doctor in charge of childbirth, told state broadcaster CCTV. According to reports, the baby weighed 2.56 kilograms at birth.
Liu said that “during the caesarean section, we discovered that Tian's ovaries were like those of a 40-year-old woman. They hadn't shrunk like the ovaries of a 60-year-old woman, which could explain how she got pregnant naturally. ”
Tian and her daughter were transferred to an intensive care unit immediately after delivery, but her vital signs were at normal levels as of Monday, the hospital spokeswoman told CNN.
'Heaven gift'
Speaking with Qilu Evening News, Tian's husband, a 68-year-old man named Huang, said the couple had decided to call their new baby Tianci, which means "gift sent from heaven."
The couple already has two adult children, a son and a daughter, and several grandchildren, he told the newspaper. His oldest grandson turned 18 this year.
The two children had opposed their parents having another baby. "My daughter even said that if I gave birth to this little baby, she would cut all ties with us," Tian told CCTV.
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Many older women strive to have more children in China since their one-child policy was lifted in 2016, which has led to an increase in the demand for fertility treatments.
Tian can now be the oldest woman to give birth in the country. According to the China Daily state newspaper, the previous record was held by a woman from Changchun, in Jilin Province, in eastern China, who gave birth to a baby in 2016 at the age of 64.
In September, a 73-year-old woman gave birth to twins in India, conceived through in vitro fertilization. It is believed that Erramatti Mangayamma, a farmer from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, is the oldest person to give birth.
