A 66-year-old Romanian mother became the world's oldest recorded woman to give birth after undergoing artificial insemination and years of fertility treatments.

Adriana Iliescu, reportedly a university professor and author of children's books, gave birth on Sunday to a baby girl called Eliza Maria, said doctors at the Giulesti Maternity Hospital in Bucharest.

Doctors performed an emergency caesarean section to save the baby after her twin sister died in Iliescu's womb.

"We wanted to wait until the 34th week of pregnancy, when the children's lungs would have reached full maturity, but we noticed on Saturday that the heart of one of the little girls had stopped beating," Dr. Bogdan Marinescu, chief of the hospital, told a news conference.

Iliescu's daughter, who was born six weeks short of a full 40-week pregnancy term, weighed 3.19 pounds. The stillborn child weighed just under 1.54 pounds.

"We are happy that the mother and child are normal and we hope this will continue," said Dr. Marinescu.

By late Sunday, the baby had a few drops of glucose, her first meal.

She was resting in the intensive care unit, but she was breathing on her own, doctors said.

"The mother is doing well -- she is saying she has been given a new lease of life," a hospital spokeswoman said.

Iliescu became pregnant after nine years of fertility treatments which reversed the effects of menopause. Dr. Marinescu said Iliescu was successfully inseminated on the first attempt.

She was initially carrying triplets but lost the third fetus after nine to 10 weeks.

When asked why he would let a woman of her age to become pregnant, Marinescu said she was in the "right condition." He declined comment on the ethics of letting a 66-year-old woman to carry babies.

Doctors say the mother and child will likely be released from hospital in the next few weeks.

Guinness World Records lists two 63-year-old women who gave birth: Italian Rosanna Della Corte in 1994 and Californian Arceli Keh in 1996. Media reports have also placed Della Corte at 62 when she gave birth.

Other news outlets have reported that a 65-year-old Indian schoolteacher gave birth two years ago.

In Canada, several women in their mid-50s have given birth.

Some European nations have put age limits on women who wish to undergo in-vitro fertilization.

With a report from CTV's Paula Newton and files from Associated Press