58-year-old Vietnamese woman gives birth to healthy baby

A 58-year-old woman in Vietnam's capital Hanoi who has been going through menopause for the last three years, has given birth to a healthy baby.

The child weighed 3.2 kg with good health condition, local Tuoi Tre (the Youth) online newspaper cited the Andrology and Fertility Hospital of Hanoi as saying on Monday.

According to Le Thi Thu Hien, deputy director of the hospital, the mother had come to the facility and expressed her hope of having a baby against the backdrop of her old age and climacteric.

Despite doctors' warnings of the potential risks and failure of in vitro fertilization (IVF) as well as her lack of physical ability to raise the infant, the woman insisted on going through the assisted conception procedure with another woman's egg.

Earlier in 2016, the Hospital of Posts and Telecoms in Hanoi reported that a 53 year-old woman and her 54-year-old husband had also given birth to their first child weighing 2.7 kg after undergoing IVF at the hospital.

Hien confirmed that the quality of the lining of the uterus is an essential factor in pregnancy in older women.

Hien highlighted a recent trend of preserving eggs and sperm for future conception, which has been favored by those who intend to get married later or those with cancer. Endit