Dressed in a white hospital gown and surrounded by flowers, the only thing distinguishing Carmen from other new mothers is the horde of reporters and paparazzi maintaining a vigil outside her room.
Carmen is quite unlike any other woman who has just given birth. At 67, she is the oldest new mother in the world.
When she gave birth to twins, Pau and Christian, by Caesarean section on December 30 she pushed the boundaries of fertility to hitherto unimagined lengths and sparked raging debate about the ethics of administering fertility treatments to 'elderly' women and the sociological implications for children born of such parents.
She is one year older than Romanian Adriana Iliescu, who gave birth in January 2005 to Eliza Maria.
Carmen's two boys, who weighed in at 1.6kg each, are said to be 'doing well' and are being cared for in incubators, according to medical staff at the hospital in Barcelona, Spain, where she gave birth.
Hailing from Andalucia in southern Spain, Carmen's story remained shrouded in secrecy a week after she gave birth.