Margaret
Davou, a 63-year-old woman on Monday, gave birth to a baby girl through
reproductive technology in Jos, Plateau State, after 38 years of
marriage. Mrs. Davou, a native of Zawan in Jos South Local Government
Area of the state, delivered the baby, her first through a Caesarean
section at the GynaeVille Specialist Hospital, Jos, where she confessed
she had achieved her life time dream of being a mother.
Speaking
with newsmen in Jos yesterday, the proud mother said: “This is not my
first trial. I have undergone many surgeries and have done the treatment
in different hospitals outside Plateau State. “This is the fourth time—
three times in other hospitals— and I am grateful to God that at the
first trial, since I came back to Jos, it is successful.” She encouraged
women who are “seeking the fruit of the womb to depend on God and seek
medical help because I am not advocating anyone visiting or patronising
herbalists.” She also urged families of such women to give them the
needed support rather than adding stress to their predicament.
However,
the Director of the hospital, Dr. Kenneth Egwuda, who was elated at the
success of the treatment, said, “God decided to favour this woman
because based on her age, 62 at her first visit in this facility in
2016, many would have doubted the success of the treatment. “But because
she looks strong and healthy for her age, we decided to take her as our
patient. “I never worried about her age, but IVF is a game of chance
and not 100 percent certain that you will get pregnant. “When she got
pregnant, it never occurred to me that something fundamental or striking
had happened until someone called my attention to it that this is the
oldest reported woman in Africa to give birth at 63 with assisted
reproductive technology and it happened here.”