Woman, 66, Oldest to Give Birth to Triplets

After spending decades wishing she could have children, Bhateri Devi, 66, is now the mother of three — triplets, two boys and a girl. But the Indian woman’s dream come true is a big of a nightmare right now. The babies are dangerously underweight and are living the first days of their lives in an intensive care unit.

Devi, who was born in 1944, is the oldest woman to give birth to triplets. But she’s not the oldest woman to give birth — not even the oldest woman in India. That claim goes to Rajo Devi Lohan, who was 70 when she gave birth to twins a year and a half ago. Both Devi and Lohan were treated at the same fertility clinic in Haryana, a city in India.

While Devi’s three kids — weighing 2lbs 6oz, 2lbs 4oz and 1lb 7oz — struggle to survive, Lohan is fighting for her life as well, prompting critics to cry out about elderly women becoming mothers.

Just 18 months after giving birth to her twins, she is still suffering from complications after her cesarean section and her refusal to allow herself to fully heal after the birth. Against doctors’ orders, Lohan insisted on squatting to milk the family cow just days after returning home from the hospital, according to the Daily Mail.

As for Devi, she and her husband of 44 years had tried to have children, but couldn’t. The husband eventually took two other wives and neither of them could conceive either. He is ecstatic about the triplets.

What do you think about such old parents giving birth so late in life? Should there be a cut-off age? If so, where do you draw the line … 40? 45? 50? 55? Does it bother you that these families are so poor?

I have three kids and, frankly, can’t blame these people for going through with it. I sometimes think if I hadn’t had kids in my 30s — if that had only become an option for me in my 50s or 60s or, heck, at 70, I’d be the first in line to try and make it happen.

Still, there’s the question of age and kids having to grow up without there parents. Except lots of kids lose their parents early in life. Why should this be any different?