A 70-year-old mum-to-be, identified as Maria de la Luz from Mazatlan in Sinaloa has claimed to be six-months pregnant with her eight child, potentially making her the oldest new mother in history when she gives birth. In a bizarre revelation, she recently showed local media an ultrasound scan which she says confirms she is pregnant with a baby girl.

Maria has not revealed any details of her pregnancy or whether she had used IVF or similar treatments, however she claims she did not realise she was pregnant until she passed her first trimester. “My legs hurt, and I was vomiting and felt dizzy,” she said. “Now they have done 10 ultrasounds in a private clinic and in the (public) social security hospital. The doctors could not believe it. They told me, it is a girl. Look, you can see her little face.” Maria is also expected to give birth via C-section due to her age. Maria told reporters that some of her children were not happy with the news, telling her she was too old for ‘those things’.

If Maria gives birth, she will become the oldest verified mother in the world, a title currently held by Spanish woman Maria del Carmen Bousada de Lara, who was 66 years old when she gave birth to twin boys via IVF in 2006. The Spanish mother had lied about her age to receive the fertility treatment in California. The twin boys were born prematurely, and their mother died from cancer less than three years later, leaving them orphaned.

Maria is not the first woman in her 70s to have claimed she was pregnant. A woman in India, 70, giving birth to twins in 2008, but authorities were able to verify her age. With a population of 41,800 in 2014, Mazatlan is the second-largest city in the state of Sinaloa.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 23, 2018 10:12 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).