A 70-year-old woman from Uganda named Safina Namukwaya has given birth to twins — a boy and a girl— using In vitro fertilization treatment, as reported by BBC on Thursday.
The delivery took place successfully through a caesarean section on Wednesday at the Women’s Hospital International and Fertility Centre in Kampala, Uganda’s capital city.
The hospital announced the birth on its Facebook page, highlighting Namukwaya’s historic feat as a 70-year-old mother delivering twins and inviting everyone to celebrate this significant event.
Namukwaya shared her experience with a privately owned NTV channel, mentioning that this was her second childbirth in three years after having a girl in 2020.
During her pregnancy, she faced numerous challenges, including abandonment by the father of the children.
Expressing her concerns,Namukwaya revealed, “Men don’t like to be told that you are carrying more than one child. Ever since I was admitted here, my man has never shown up.”
Despite uncertainties about raising the children, she expressed her joy at finally having them after enduring years of societal stigma and ridicule for her inability to conceive.
She recounted an incident where she was mocked by a young boy who insensitively commented that she was cursed by her mother to remain childless.
“One time, a very young boy heckled me saying I had been cursed by my mother to die without a child”.
The hospital where Namukwaya gave birth confirmed her status as the oldest woman in Africa to deliver a baby.
In vitro fertilisation (IVF) involves the removal of an egg from a woman’s ovaries, fertilising it with sperm in controlled laboratory conditions, and then placing the resulting embryo back into the woman’s womb for development.
