A Chinese woman had twin girls at the age of 60 following

A Chinese woman had twin girls at the age of 60 following IVF treatment after her only child died, making her possibly the oldest person in the country to give birth, state media reported today.

The case is extremely unusual in China, which has long maintained a one-child policy, because of the woman’s age. Worldwide, many countries and clinics impose limits on IVF treatment which is known to become less effective with age, and amid concerns for the resulting children’s welfare.

Sheng Hailin, now 63, lost her first daughter, then in her late twenties, in an accidental gas poisoning case in 2009, the China Daily said.

A military hospital in the eastern city of Hefei agreed to give her and her husband in vitro fertilization (IVF) therapy, the report said.

She gave birth to Zhizhi, who weighed 4.1 pounds, and Huihui, 1.45 kilograms, on May 25, 2010 at the No 105 Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army, said the paper.

The oldest woman to give birth anywhere, according to the Guinness Book of Records, was Maria del Carmen Bousada Lara, of Spain, who had twin boys by caesarean in 2006 aged 66 years 358 days. She died of cancer three years later.

The China Daily did not explain why Sheng was accepted for treatment.

Source AFP