•Safina Namukwaya
In a rare medical feat, a 70-year-old Ugandan woman, Safina Namukwaya, has given birth.
The woman delivered a set of twins – a boy and a girl, after becoming pregnant through an In vitro fertilisation treatment, BBC reported on Thursday.
Namukwaya went through a successful caesarean delivery on Wednesday at the Women’s Hospital International and Fertility Centre in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
The hospital shared the news of the delivery via its Facebook page on Wednesday, stating, “70-year-old, Safina Namukwaya, speaking just before the delivery of her beautiful babies. Yes, she delivered twins, a boy and a girl. A historic achievement indeed.
“As we honour 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.”
IVF is a technique used to assist people with fertility issues in having babies. During IVF, an egg is removed from the woman’s ovaries and fertilised with sperm under controlled laboratory conditions.
Thereafter, the fertilised egg, referred to as an embryo, is then returned to the woman’s womb to grow and develop.
Namukwaya told a privately owned NTV channel that it was her second delivery in three years after she gave birth to a girl in 2020.
The 70-year-old shared that she had experienced multiple difficulties during the pregnancy, including desertion by the children’s father.
She lamented, “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.”
Namukwaya said she did not know how she would manage to raise the children, but was happy to have them after years of enduring stigma and ridicule for being childless, the report stated.
“One time, a very young boy heckled me saying I had been cursed by my mother to die without a child,” she recalled.
According to the hospital where she had the babies. Namukwaya becomes the oldest woman in Africa to give birth.
