A 67-year-old retired doctor gave birth to a baby girl in Shandong province last Friday, making her reportedly the oldest ‘new mother’ in China.
The woman, surnamed Tian, birthed the child by cesarean section at the Zaozhuang Maternity and Child Health Hospital. CNN reported that Tian used traditional Chinese fertility treatments to help her become pregnant naturally. Her baby reportedly weighed 2.56 kilograms at birth. Both Tian and her newborn were taken to an intensive care unit following the pregnancy, but their vital signs were normal as of Monday.
Fascinatingly, the physician in charge of the delivery told CCTV that “during the cesarean section, we found that Tian’s ovaries were just like the ones of a 40-year-old woman. They hadn’t shrunk like a 60-year-old’s ovaries would have, which might explain how she got pregnant naturally,” as cited by CNN.
Tian and her husband, a 68-year-old former lawyer surnamed Huang, now have a very unique family tree, to say the least. The newest family member, named Tianci (meaning ‘gift from heaven’) is already an aunt, with a niece who is 18 years older than the baby girl. Meanwhile, Tianci’s sisters are said to be 40 years older than the newborn.
Unfortunately, the parents seem to have gone through a rough patch with Tianci’s (much) older siblings. Tian claims her daughter “would sever all ties” with them if the grandmother did go through with the pregnancy. “I don’t care what my other kids think,” said Huang, cited by CNN.
The story was posted on Weibo on Saturday, with netizens debating whether the elderly couple were putting an unfair burden on their other children. “At 77 years old, the child will be only 10 years old. Isn’t this just increasing the responsibility of your two other children? You obviously don’t care about your children’s opinions, and won’t be able to raise [the child] after several years,” commented one Weibo user under a video post by Pear Video.
On Sunday, Tian and Huang responded to the skepticism surrounding the pregnancy, claiming they receive over RMB10,000 per month in retirement pay, and are not worried about raising the child. In an interview with Pear Video, Huang noted that they “have experience.”
There’s certainly no arguing with that.
[Cover image via @广州日报/Weibo]
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