Seventy-year-old woman gives birth to twins, but says the father has abandoned her

1 December 2023, 08:25

A 70-year-old woman has given birth to twins through IVF.

A hospital in Uganda said that Safina Namukwaya had a boy and a girl via a Caesarean section on Wednesday.

The women's international hospital and fertility centre in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, said: "Yes she delivered twins, a boy and a girl. A historic achievement indeed.

"As we honor this courageous mother and anticipate the healthy growth of her twins, we invite you to celebrate with us.

"This story isn't just about medical success; it's about the strength and resilience of the human spirit."

Ms Namukwaya, who gave birth to her first child, a daughter, three years ago, said that bearing twins at her age was "not a cup of tea".

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"There was a time I felt very sick because of that pregnancy," she told a local reporter from her hospital bed. "I spent nearly all my savings."

But the father of the twins, a boy and a girl, seems not to want to be involved. "Men don't like to be told that you are carrying more than one child," Ms Namukwaya said in a translated interview.

"Ever since I was admitted here, my man has never showed up."

She said her doctor had "provided for everything, as though he is the father of the children."

Ms Namukwaya wanted to get pregnant after being insulted by a young boy who said she had been cursed by her mother to die without a child.

"I cared for other people's children, and I would see them grow and leave me alone," she said. "I wondered who would care for me after I become very elderly."

Asked about her readiness to look after her children, Ms Namukwaya said: "I really don't know - God is in charge".

Pregnancy after the menopause, which usually arrives between the ages of 45 and 55, is uncommon. Breakthroughs in medical science have made it possible in some cases.

Ms Namukwaya is the sixth woman to give birth after the age of 70, and the first outside of Indai.

The oldest woman to have given birth is Indian woman Erramatti Mangamma, who gave birth to twins aged 73 in 2019. She also used IVF to conceive with her partner.