She was utterly determined to have a son.The fact that to do so would make 70-year-old Omkari Panwar the world's oldest mother didn't even cross her mind.Her resolve was matched by her husband Charan Singh Panwar, 77.
Omkari and her twins (a boy with white hat and a girl) on the day after they were discharged from hospitalNow the pensioner parents will rely on family handouts and the charity of fellow villagers to bring up the little boy they so wanted, and the little girl they didn't.But the Panwars, who live in a tiny community in Uttar Pradesh, North India, were delighted to finally see and hold their two babies, now weighing a healthy 4lbs, six weeks after they were born on June 27.'We have not been able to see or hold them all this time," said frail Omkari. "They had to stay in the hospital because they were so small.'We could not afford to stay there, so we had to leave them.' And she added: 'We paid all this money to the doctors for a son, but now we have the extra burden of another daughter as well.' Boys are cherished in India because daughters are not allowed to inherit property but leave to marry and become part of their new husband's family.The twins were born at 34 weeks by emergency caesarian section at a hospital in the nearest town of Muzaffarnagar.They weighed just 2lbs each and had to be rushed to the Jaswant Roy Speciality Hospital which has a neonatal intensive care unit.
The world's oldest mum, who gave birth to twins at 70 after IVF, proudly showed off her son, then admitted: 'Now I've got another daughter to feed too.'Omkari Panwar, and her husband Charan Singh Panwar, 77, underwent IVF all for the sake of producing a male heir to take over the family's smallholdings.The elderly Indian couple, who already have two daughters in their thirties, and five grandchildren, are near destitute after mortgaging their land, selling their buffalo and taking out a loan for the £4,400 fertility treatment.
Proud parents: Omkari Panwar, 70, with her husband Charan, 77
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