A 67-year-old woman gave birth to a healthy baby girl in China on Friday — and that's not even the craziest part. She claims she conceived "naturally," without the help of IVF, but did use her own knowledge as a doctor to help make it happen. According to reports, the woman, surnamed Tian, self-administered traditional Chinese fertility treatments — and they apparently did the trick.
Tian gave birth at Zaozhuang Maternity and Child Health Hospital, which just so happened to be where she once served as a doctor.
The baby was delivered via C-section and weighed 5.6 pounds at the time of her birth, according to CNN. The child's parents, who are said to be over the moon at her arrival, named her Tianci, which means "gift sent from heaven."
Doctors were pleased with the delivery, and reported that there were no complications due to Tian's age.
In fact, her doctor told CNN that her ovaries appeared to be that of a 40-year-old woman, when doctors performed the Cesarean.
"They hadn't shrunk like a 60-year-old's ovaries would have, which might explain how she got pregnant naturally," said Dr. Liu Wencheng, who was charge of the delivery.
"We were quite lucky, given that the mother was at an advanced maternal age and had a variety of complications," Wencheng added.
Although the baby is a welcome addition to the family, she isn't actually the couple's first child.
Tian's husband, a 68-year-old who is surnamed Huang, told the Qilu Evening News that they already have two grown children, a son and a daughter, as well as several grandchildren. In fact, their oldest grandchild just turned 18. He also mentioned that he and his wife plan on living to 110 years old so he isn't worried about their current age.
It might not be a surprising, then, to learn that the couple's two grown children didn't exactly support their parents' decision to have another child. But Tian told CCTV that her daughter's reaction was especially extreme.
"My daughter even said that if I gave birth to this little baby, she would sever all ties to us," she said.
But for now, the couple is just happy they have their baby girl. They're also busy making headlines — Tian is believed to be the oldest known woman on record to give birth in China. However, she's not the oldest in the world; that title may belong to a woman in India, who gave birth in September at the ripe old age of 74. (In her case, she did go through IVF.)
