Woman, 59, miraculously provides start to child for heartbreaking cause
A mum in China is now the oldest woman in her city to have a baby but doctors were fearful that, as an older woman, the risk of ‘abnormal foetus increased remarkably’
The happy mum in hospital with her baby at the bottom of the bed (Image: FACEBOOK/South China Morning Post)
A woman – who stunned doctors by giving birth to a baby at the age of 59 – has revealed the touching reason she wanted a child.
The mum from China, known only by her surname, Zou, welcomed her tiny tot via C-section on January 9 at Zhangjiagang No 1 People’s Hospital in the eastern Jiangsu province. The baby weighed a healthy 2.2kg.
Zou is now officially the oldest woman in the city to ever give birth, according to local reports, and she says she still can’t believe it. “Seeing the baby and hearing his cries, I am so excited. I did not expect my dream would come true,” she said.
She already has an adult daughter living overseas and admitted the empty nest left her and her husband feeling painfully alone. “As time goes by, my husband and I often feel lonely,” she revealed.
Two years ago then, the couple decided to try for another child and after carefully preparing her body, Zou fell pregnant last year thanks to IVF. But doctors were on red alert.
“Zou is 59 and is a super old pregnant woman, with the risks of pregnancy complications and an abnormal foetus increasing remarkably,” said senior obstetrician Guo Huiping. The risks of complications and abnormalities were sky-high and she was placed under round-the-clock medical surveillance, with doctors constantly checking in.
“They regularly sent me messages to remind me of my health condition. I feel I am like a panda, being carefully protected by doctors,” she joked.
But the pregnancy was far from smooth and Zou suffered dangerously unstable blood pressure, kidney problems, swelling legs and abnormal blood readings, reports South China Morning Post.
With her health deteriorating, doctors made the call to deliver the baby early at 33 weeks and five days. “She is a brave mother to take on such a formidable challenge,” Guo said.
The astonishing birth set social media tongues wagging, with users fiercely divided. One person blasted: “She won’t have the energy to raise the child. It’s cruel.”
But another hit back: “Why pressure young people? Retired couples have time and pensions. Perfect solution.”
The news comes after a 62-year-old woman in China said she was six months pregnant – with the ‘return of her dead son’. The grey-haired mum-to-be, from Songyuan in China’s northeastern Jilin province is expecting her second child decades after her first pregnancy.
Sadly, her only son died in January last, with the cause of his death and exact age unavailable. But, just months after she lost her child, the unnamed woman conceived through IVF. “Many people told me that since I like eating sweet food these days, the baby I am carrying should be a boy. So it is the return of my son,” she said.
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