The story of an Indian woman identified as Sulagatti Narasamma has gone viral. The elderly woman who passed away on December 25th, 2018, at the age of 98, was interviewed by BeingYou a few weeks before she died and she talked about her life.

She revealed that she was a midwife and delivered 15,000 babies. Below is her story, go through:

'I was born on June 16th, 1920. In my life since, I have delivered over 15,000 babies. Every delivery was successful.  I was six when I began observing my grandmother as she delivered babies in our village. I’d ask questions and seek out answers. When I was 12, I was married to a farmer, but because we are not allowed to go to our husband’s house till we are 15, my father invited him to live with us. In those three years, he learnt many handicrafts from my father. Then we moved to his house. We had 12 children; 4 girls and 8 boys. It used to be difficult with all the children, but we always managed one meal a day. Because of my service to the community, people used to help us out with food or books for the children.

When I was 20, I performed my first delivery on my own for my aunt. She’d had two children before and said this was the easiest one, and there has been no looking back since.

When a woman was eight months pregnant, I could tell the health and gender of the child as well as the direction of the child’s head just by placing my hands on the mother’s belly. Sometimes I listen as well. There is no magic to it. It is just experience and concentration. I give advise to pregnant women too, on what to eat and how to behave. My one advise to all new mothers was they should always cover their head and ears and be careful in what to eat. This is how I got the name ‘Sulagatti’ which means ‘experienced midwife’. From that day on, I became Sulagatti Narasamma.

Back in those days, we did not know all this cesarean birth and normal delivery. It was all part of the job. In case a child was born prematurely, I would put the baby on a bed of dry paddy and old clothes to replicate the conditions of the womb as far as possible. Sometimes, married couples used to come tell me that they could not have a baby. I’d tell them to do the Santhana Lakshmi Pooja, not argue for three months, and instruct the man to come back home every night without fail. I’d give them nine pulses to eat, and after a while, they’d come and tell me that they were pregnant. It was about faith. Sometimes nomadic tribes used to stay near our village, and I have helped with deliveries for them too. In return, they’d share traditional medicinal methods and ingredients.

My first daughter gave me ten grandchildren. I delivered all of them. Sometimes, when I travel to a village for a case, all the other pregnant women in the area would request help as well. I’d do 20-30 deliveries before I come back! Sometimes I’ve done 6-7 deliveries in one day.

Even today, there are midwives in the villages. I have trained 180 women myself, including my youngest daughter and my oldest daughter-in-law. One of my sons also practices traditional medicine. But today, the number of people coming to midwives is very low.

In 2018, the government awarded me the Padma Shri. But to me, happiness is when children that I delivered come to me to seek blessings. They come as doctors and lawyers and engineers, and I feel such joy when I see them.'