A 70-year-old woman from Uganda gave birth to twins after a successful IVF (In vitro fertilization) treatment on November 29, a fertility hospital in Kampala announced. Safina Namukwaya said she underwent the treatment because she spent years being mocked for having no children. She went through pregnancy without a partner to support her. Namukwaya gave birth to a girl and a boy via ceaserean.
The hospital congratulated Namukwaya, saying, "It's not only medical success; it's also about the strength and resilience of the human spirit." Namukwaya is said to be the oldest woman to conceive and give birth in Africa. The Women's Hospital International and Fertility Centre posted about the feat on their Facebook page. "We've achieved the extraordinary - delivering twins to Africa's oldest mother aged 70!"
Safina Namukwaya told a local Ugandan newspaper, Daily Monitor, that she underwent IVF so she could stop people from mocking her 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 expressed. She said that her first husband had died in 1992, leaving her without children, and she met her current partner in 1996.
But she was abandoned by her current partner when he found out about her pregnancy. She told the newspaper that going through pregnancy all by herself was difficult, but she is thrilled to have her babies. She called it a "miracle".
"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 admitted to the Daily Monitor. Namukwaya also underwent IVF before this, and had a baby girl in 2020.
"There is no way to express my joy at this moment," said Namukwaya, who lives in the rural of Masaka about 120 kilometres from Kampala. "This is extraordinary achievement, delivering twins to Africa's oldest mother at 70 years," Dr Edward Tamale Sali, who supervised her pregnancy and delivery, told Agence France Presse.
It has not been disclosed whether she Safiya Namukwaya used a donor egg or one of her own that was frozen and stored when she was younger. In a similar case, a 73-year-old Indian woman underwent IVF and delivered a baby in 2022.
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