A 70-year-old Ugandan woman has given birth to twins, a boy and a girl: her doctor announced it in what the new mother hailed as “a miracle”. Safina Namukwaya described her joy at the arrival of the twins, born in a health facility in the capital Kampala, where the woman underwent fertility treatment.
“This is an extraordinary achievement, giving twins to Africa’s oldest mother,” said Dr. Edward Tamale Sali, who assisted the woman during her pregnancy and birth.
The doctor stated that the woman and the twins are still in the International Women’s Hospital and in the fertility center he founded, but are in good health. “I can’t express my joy right now,” said Namukwaya, who lives in rural Masaka, about 120 kilometers west of Kampala.
“At 70 years old, considered incapable of becoming pregnant and giving birth, or caring for a child, here is the miracle of twins,” she said
. The woman said she gave birth to a baby girl in 2020, after being labeled a “cursed woman” as she was previously nulliparous. Her first husband died in 1992, leaving her childless, and in 1996 she met her current partner.
Namukwaya expressed shock that her partner has not yet visited her. “Maybe he’s not happy that I gave birth to twins because men don’t want her to carry more than one child, for fear that there could be responsibilities associated with this,” she commented.