70-year-old woman gives birth to twins

A 70-year-old woman in Uganda, Safina Namukwaya, has given birth to twins, following IVF treatment at a hospital in the country.

Namukwaya, on Thursday, described her joy at the arrival of the twins who were born via caesarean on Wednesday at a medical facility in the country’s capital, Kampala, where she had received fertility treatment.

“This is extraordinary achievement, delivering twins to Africa’s oldest mother at 70 years,” Doctor Edward Tamale Sali, who supervised her pregnancy and delivery, said.

He said the 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,” Namukwaya, who lives in the rural of Masaka about 120 kilometres (75 miles) west of Kampala, said.

“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,” she told AFP.

Namukwaya said she previously gave birth to a girl in 2020, after being mocked as “cursed woman” who had previously failed to produce a child.

The 70-year-old woman said her first husband had died in 1992, leaving her without children, and she met her current partner in 1996.

But Namukwaya 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 maybe responsibilities that come with that,” she said.

The Star