Indonesian surgeons have delivered a 27-year-old baby from a middle-aged housewife who had carried the dead body inside her because she was too poor to have it removed, doctors said Wednesday.

A team of 15 doctors operated for three hours on Tuesday to retrieve the 1.6 kilogram (3.5 pound) petrified baby from the 54-year-old woman, identified as Taminah, at the Sutomo general hospital in the Java island city of Surabaya.

"This may be a world record. The woman has carried the dead but fully developed baby inside her for 27 years," said doctor Urip Murtejo.

He said the woman was otherwise healthy but had been referred to the hospital from her home of Bojenegoro, west of Surabaya, after complaining of occasional pains in her stomach.

Taminah's baby perished before birth in 1978 after it developed outside the womb. At the time she could not afford the surgery to extract it, Murtejo said.

The woman was recovering at the hospital and was said to be in good health after the operation. The body was taken for forensic study.

AFP