61-year-old Brazilian gives birth to twins

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — A 61-year-old Brazilian woman who spent the last two decades trying to get pregnant gave birth to twins this week.

Antonia Leticia Rovati Asti gave birth for the first time through artificial insemination at a hospital in Santos, near São Paulo, Brazil, according to the Daily Mail. The retired secretary and her husband, 55-year-old José, a carpenter, wanted a family as soon as they were married, but were unable to have children. After years of trying and several in-vitro fertilization (IVF) attempts, their family has finally grown, thanks to 10-year-old frozen embryos.

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Sofia and Roberto were born on Tuesday by caesarean section just two weeks after Asti's 61st birthday, and each weighed two pounds.

Asti tried first tried IVF in 2002 and, after failing to become pregnant, she decided to adopt, but was rejected because of her age, reported EFE.

"The new attempt at artificial insemination was carried out with embryos that were left from the first procedure 10 years ago and were frozen," a source at Dr. Orlando de Castro Neto's clinic told EFE.

"The embryos have a validity of 10 years, more or less," Neto said, according to the New York Daily News, "and they were reaching their end. She said she wanted to use them for a new attempt."

And nobody involved seems concerned with the age of the new parents.

"I'm so thrilled. All I ever wanted to be is a mother, and now my dream has finally come true," the Daily News reported Asti as saying. "I fought for this for so long. I never for one moment thought about giving up. We never had a lot of money but we saved a lot to achieve our dreams."

Her husband agrees.

"I will love these children very much and work hard to put food in their mouths," he said.