70-something new mum Daljinder Kaur Gill says God has a plan for her son
The Gill couple and their baby. Photo : Getty Images
New Delhi: If anything will help one of India's oldest mothers, Daljinder Kaur Gill, aged around 70 (she is not sure of her age), to raise her baby boy, it won't be energy drinks, age-delaying pills, yoga or a nanny but her faith in God. She invokes him every few sentences, perhaps with reason.
"How could I have become pregnant, at my age, if God hadn't destined this for me?' she asks, speaking to Fairfax Media from her home in Amritsar, northern India.
Despite having failed to conceive during 46 years of marriage, Mrs Gill, a devout Sikh, says she never gave up hope. "My grandmother told me something I always remembered. She said 'as long as you have breath in your body, keep trying to fulfil your dreams'."
But her husband, 79-year-old Mohinder Singh Gill, has been committed to her and never once blamed her. He says that no one ever made them the butt of jokes or snide remarks. "How could they? Everyone knows that all couples want a child, so how could they say anything mean about us?" he says.
Two attempts using her egg and her husband's sperm had previously failed. Even then, they kept hoping. "We said that we must keep trying as God would not want us to give up on him. Everything is in his hands," says Mrs Gill.
On April 19, she gave birth, through caesarean section, to a healthy boy who has been named Arman, meaning wish or desire. Some doctors say the impact of a pregnancy on a 70-year-old body is far too onerous but Mrs Gill says that hers was smooth and carefree.
On the line from her home, she struggles to be heard against the background noise of festivity. Although it has been almost a month, relatives, friends, and neighbours keep invading their living room to celebrate their good fortune and the media attention.
The case is not the first in India. A 72-year-old Indian woman gave birth in 2008, through IVF at the same clinic.
The Gills are undaunted at the prospect of raising a child at their advanced age, saying that "happiness gives you strength".
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