A 67-year old Spanish woman has become the world's oldest mother, after giving birth to twins at the end of last month. The woman and her sons are in good health, following a smooth delivery, a spokesman for the Sant Pau hospital in Barcelona said. According to newspaper reports, the Andalucian woman, who has no other children, became pregnant following IVF treatment in the US.

Previously, the oldest woman to have given birth following fertility treatment was Adriana Iliescu, a Romanian woman, who had a daughter at the age of 66 in 2005. She too had been pregnant with twins, but underwent a Caesarean section at 32 weeks after one of the babies died in the womb.

Before Ms Iliescu, the oldest recorded woman to give birth was a 65- year old Indian woman called Satyabhama Mahapatra, who had a baby in 2003. She had used an egg donated from her 26-year old niece, which was fertilised with her husband's sperm.

The UK's oldest mother is Dr Patricia Rashbrook, who gave birth last year aged 62, following IVF treatment with donor eggs. Dr Rashbrook, who traveled to Eastern Europe for the fertility treatment with her second husband, 60-year old John Farrant, paid £7000 for the treatment. Liz Buttle had previously beenthe UK's oldest mother when she had a son at the age of 60, in 1997, after claiming she was 49 in order to receive treatment.

- The Times 9/11/2006 'Surgeons ready to perform first womb transplant'
- The Times::
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2444965,00.html