Woman Delivers Baby At 64 After Trying For 41 Years

NEW DELHI – Sixty-four-yearoldSarala Srivastava had beenwaiting for long – 41 years to beprecise – for the miracle. Thelong wait finally ended lastmonth with Sarala delivering ababy girl, a feat that made her aproud member of a select 60-plus mothers club from acrossthe world.Sarala got married in 1972 andsince then had been waiting toconceive a baby, desperately.When she failed to conceive formore than five years after hermarriage, the couple consulted adoctor in Gwalior, MadhyaPradesh, who in turn explainedto them that natural pregnancywas not possible in her case asshe had some complications.In spite of undergoing a surgery,the problem could not berectified and she decided tohave the baby through the invitro fertilisation (IVF) technique,wherein an egg is fertilizedby sperm outside the bodyin a lab.She underwent her first cycle ofIVF in 1988, which was a failedattempt. The disheartened coupledid not make any furtherattempts to have a baby untillast year. Twenty-three years hadalready passed since her lastattempt at the IVF proceduresbut doctors decided to takeanother chance as the coupleseemed really determined to tryone more time.“She came to us with a 10-weekoldpregnancy. I hadn’t seensuch case before and had noexample to fall back upon. Weonly followed the physiology ofpregnancy to treat her. Thechances of a still birth were highas she was suffering from highblood pressure. We put her onmedicines and hormone therapyto avoid any complications,”said Dr Sula Ray Prasad, consultantgynaecology and obstetricsand infertility specialist atAdiva Super Speciality Care.Srivastava developed complicationsin the 32nd week, and hadto be operated upon. The baby,which weighed a mere 1.5 kilosat birth, is doing fine after beingkept in the intensive care foralmost two weeks.