A Ugandan woman aged 70 has given birth to twins, her doctor said on Thursday, in what the mother hailed as a miracle.
Safina Namukwaya described her joy at the arrival of the twins who were born on Wednesday at a medical facility in Kampala, where she had received fertility treatment.
“This is extraordinary achievement, delivering twins to Africa’s oldest mother at 70 years,” said doctor Edward Tamale Sali, who supervised her pregnancy and delivery.
He said mother and babies — a boy and a girl — were still in the care of the Women’s Hospital International and Fertility Centre that he founded, but were in good health.
“There is no way to express my joy at this moment,” said Namukwaya, who lives in the rural of Masaka about 120km west of Kampala.
“At 70 years when I’m considered weak, unable to get pregnant and deliver, or look after a baby, and here is a miracle of the twins,” Namukwaya said.
She previously gave birth to a girl in 2020, after being mocked as a “cursed woman” who had previously failed to produce a child, Namukwaya said.
Her first husband had died in 1992, leaving her without children, and she met her current partner in 1996, Namukwaya said.
However, she voiced dismay that her partner has not visited her since she came to the hospital for the delivery.
“Maybe he is not happy that I delivered twins because men don’t want to know you are carrying more than one child in a womb for fear of may be responsibilities that come with that,” Namukwaya said.
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