Ugandan woman goes viral for giving birth to twins at 70

A 70-year-old Ugandan woman delivered twins via caesarean at a fertility centre in Kampala, earlier this month, after undergoing in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment, the BBC reported.

Safina Namukwaya, who is one of the oldest women to give birth delivered a boy and a girl, said it was a "miracle", according to Ugandan media.

"We've achieved the extraordinary - delivering twins to Africa's oldest mother aged 70!" the Women's Hospital International and Fertility Centre (WHI&FC) — the hospital where Namukwaya gave birth — posted on its Facebook page.

The hospital congratulated her, saying it is more than a "medical success; it's about the strength and resilience of the human spirit".

Dr Edward Tamale Sali, a fertility specialist at the WHI&FC, said that the mother used a donor egg and her partner's sperm for the IVF procedure.

The babies were born prematurely at 31 weeks and placed in incubators but Dr Sali says that they are currently "stable".

Previously, in 2019, a 73-year-old Indian woman gave birth to twins following IVF treatment.

Namukwaya told Uganda's Daily Monitor newspaper that her pregnancy had been difficult as her partner abandoned her when he realised she was going to have twins.

"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 showed up," she said.

The twins mark Namukwaya's second delivery in three years as she gave birth to a baby girl in 2020. She said she had wanted to have children after she was mocked for being childless.

"I looked after people's children and saw them grow up and leave me alone. I wondered who would take care of me when I grow old," she is quoted as saying.