Twin bundle of joy for mom at 58
Miracles do occur!
A 58-year-old woman overcame a history of nine miscarriages to become the proud mother of twin babies after a successful invitro fertilisation (IVF) at a hospital in Adoor in Pathanamthitta district.
Though Ramadevi may only be the second oldest Indian to conceive after 70-year-old Rajo Devi of Haryana, her doctors say she is the oldest in the country to give birth to twins.
Ramadevi gave birth to a baby boy and a girl weighing 1.7 kg and 1.3 kg respectively by caesarean, on July 16 and the mother and babies are “doing well’’, said Dr S Pappachan, infertility specialist of Lifeline Superspeciality Hospital, Adoor. Perhaps, what makes Ramadevi of Oachira in Kollam district special is the saga of miscarriages and infant deaths that have preceded this success.
She got married to Muralidharan Nair, a sub- inspector with the Kerala police in 1983. She had to go through seven miscarriages even before opting for IVF out of which twice she gave birth to a child which did not live long. “Of course, those tragic incidents happened because of my hypertension. Thank god, everything has gone off smoothly this time,’’ Ramadevi who retired as district social welfare officer in Thrissur told Deccan Herald over phone. Ramadevi had two abortions even after undergoing IVF at two hospitals in Tamil Nadu. After these, she gave birth to twin girls after IVF in 2004, but they died later. “We didn’t give up after that and thought that life has to have some meaning after retirement. That’s how we decided to give it one more try and consulted Dr Pappachan last year,’’ Ramadevi said.
Dr Pappachan said Ramadevi reached menopause five years ago and consequently her uterus had also shrunk quite a bit. “We restored her regular menstruation through medicines, developed the uterus, removed the embryos and fertilised them with sperm outside,’’ Dr Pappachan said.
The embryos were kept outside for four days and injected back to Ramadevi’s uterus.
DH News Service
