World’s Oldest Mother: 80-Year-Old Mom Was Desperate For A Son


The world’s oldest mother is still going strong at the age of 80. For the majority of women on the planet, the idea of having children well into your seventies and eighties is a remote, if not impossible, thought. This isn’t the case with one woman who lives in Northern India. Omkali Singh of Uttar Pradesh has quite a task on her hands being an old mother who also has two daughters and five grandchildren. Her husband, Charan, is 89.

Huffington Post reports that the 80-year-old woman is happy regardless of the exhaustion she feels keeping up with their 6-year-old son, Amritwani.

Omkali made headlines in 2008 after she gave birth to twins, Amritwani and Barsaat. She was reportedly the world’s oldest mother at the age of 74 that year as well. At the time, LiveLeak reported that Charan had to mortgage his land to fund the invetro fertilizations.

Omkali has been hit with criticism online and in her own community for choosing to have a child so late in life. Regardless of living in a nation which basically doesn’t grant women any rights, Omkali wanted to have another baby six years ago with the hope that she’d have a son. Amritwani’s sister, Barsaat, died when she was 4-years-old. Now he’s the only son of the world’s oldest mother.

There was fear for Omkali and Charan that if they wouldn’t have a son, no one would take over their home.

“I thought if I will give birth to a boy, I will become like other mothers. Without a son, there was no life for me. Because, who would own this house if I had no sons?”

They have daughters, but in their country it’s the men who don’t need property to marry. It’s ideal for women to have dowries in order to marry. Add to that, it’s the responsibility of sons to care for aging parents.

Omkali Singh with 6-year-old grandson, Amritwani. (Photo Credit: Barcroft Media)
Omkali Singh with 6-year-old grandson, Amritwani. (Photo Credit: Barcroft Media)

Omkali is often mistaken as Amritwani’s grandmother and she has to correct them.

“Many people ask me, ‘Is he your grandson’? I tell them ‘No. He is my son,'” the 80-year-old says.

She insists that she’s “very happy” to be a mom.

“I am very happy that I am a mother of a six-year-old son. It is an unexplainable feeling.”

Getting the energetic boy ready for school each day is a bit of a challenge for the world’s oldest mom.

“I am not able to bath him properly. I have problems getting him dressed. It is hard to run around and feed him. Old age is like this.”

A number of locals support Omkali having a child at her advanced age. So, she has a lot of people rallying around her.

If there’s one thing Omkali wants now, it’s living long enough to see her son get married. She says she’s not worried about what happens to Amritwani when she dies because her daughter will take care of him.

For now, the world’s oldest mother is enjoying life raising her 6-year-old son and no longer fears for her home’s future.

[Photo Credit: Barcroft Media via U.K. Huffington Post]

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