57-year-old Indian woman delivers twins, sets Australian record

MELBOURNE - A 57-year-old Indian woman gave birth to twins in the Australian city of Perth, setting a new Australian record.

The woman is believed to have become the oldest woman to give birth in Australia, beating a woman who became a mother at age 56, The Sunday Herald Sun reported.

The delivery took place through caesarean section Monday at King Edward Memorial Hospital in Perth. The woman is believed to be from India.

The woman had IVF treatment with donated eggs in India before delivering twins in Perth, sources said.

She is understood to have spent the duration of her pregnancy in Western Australia.

The National Perinatal Data Collection earlier recorded the oldest woman to have given birth in Australia as 56. That woman had also become the oldest IVF patient in Australia after receiving treatment at a Queensland fertility centre.

Latest Western Australia health department statistics reveal that only six women aged 50 gave birth from 1980 to 2009.

Australian Medical Association president Andrew Pesce said few women over 50 had undertaken IVF treatment in Australia due to poor success rate over age 44.

“Certainly this case raises very significant issues. If you were a good doctor counselling a patient, you would make sure the patient understood the implications of having a child at that age.

“It’s fair to say it is unusual, but at the end of the day I think that we live in a society which values individual choice,” Pesce was quoted as saying.

Perth’s Concept Fertility Centre scientific director Peter Burton said: “They’re really moral and ethical issues that society needs to decide on… Fifty-seven is by no means the oldest in terms of the world setting, but everyone will have a different age that they think is too old.”

Burton added that a shortage of egg donors had led to many Australian women travelling to India and South Africa for IVF treatment.