A 70-year-old Ugandan woman, Safina Namukwaya, has delivered a set of twins following an IVF procedure at a hospital in Uganda, becoming the oldest woman to give birth in Africa.
Mrs Namukwaya welcomed a twin, a boy and a girl, via caesarean on Wednesday at the Women’s Hospital International and Fertility Centre in Kampala, Uganda.
An IVF, the abbreviation for In-Vitro Fertilisation, is one of several fertility techniques, during the process an egg is removed from a woman’s ovaries and fertilised with sperm in a laboratory. The fertilised egg, called an embryo, is then put in a woman’s womb to grow and develop, and delivered after nine months.
According to the Women’s Hospital International and Fertility Centre (WHI&FC), Mrs Namukwaya is the oldest woman to become a mother in Africa. The hospital made this known in a statement posted on their official Facebook page.
The statement reads, “Celebrating our 20th anniversary, we’ve achieved the extraordinary – delivering twins to Africa’s oldest mother aged 70! This story isn’t just about medical success; it’s about the strength and resilience of the human spirit.
Mrs Namukwaya who reportedly lost her husband in 1992 before entering into another relationship four years later, expressed the difficulties of being a mother without the support of her partner.
Reflecting on her experience, she disclosed, “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.”
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 said.
