70-year-old Ugandan gives birth to twins | Abroad

Both the mother and the children, a boy and a girl, are in good health and are still under observation in a hospital in the capital Kampala. The woman, Safina Namukwaya, comes from the city of Masaka, about 120 kilometers west of the capital.

Striking: three years ago the woman also gave birth to a girl. Because she had not been able to have children for years, she was sometimes verbally abused, she testified in local media. Her desire to have children continued to haunt her. “I took care of other people’s children and watched them grow up and leave me alone again. I wondered who would take care of me when I got old.”

The Ugandan also says that she suffered a lot from her pregnancy. She went to a nearby hospital and eventually ended up with doctor Edward Sali, who had her transferred to Kampala. “Doctor Sali took care of everything,” she says.

The twins’ father, whom she met in 1996, abandoned her as soon as she was transferred to Kampala. “Men don’t like to hear that you are carrying more than one child,” says the woman. “Since I was admitted here, my husband has never shown up.” She had had a miscarriage with her first husband, who died in 1992.

Women usually go through menopause between the ages of 45 and 55. However, advances in medicine make it possible to give birth at a later age, the BBC points out. One of the best-known techniques is in vitro fertilization or IVF. This lady has also undergone an IVF process. She gave birth via caesarean section.

The woman is one of the oldest women to give birth to a child – and according to the hospital, also the oldest in Africa – but not the very oldest. In 2019, Erramatti Mangayamma from India gave birth to twin girls at the age of 74, also after IVF. This made her the oldest mother in the world.