A 70-year-old Ugandan woman has given birth to twins

A hospital in Uganda has announced that a woman, Safina Namukwaya, aged 70, has successfully delivered twins through IVF treatment.

The twins, a boy and a girl, were born via caesarean at a fertility center in Kampala, making Ms. Namukwaya one of the oldest women to experience childbirth.

She expressed to local media that the event felt like a “miracle.”

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

In 2019, a pair of twins was born through IVF treatment to a 73-year-old woman from India.

“We’ve achieved the extraordinary – delivering twins to Africa’s oldest mother aged 70!” the Women’s Hospital International and Fertility Centre (WHI&FC) posted on its Facebook page.

It said she had delivered the babies on Wednesday just after midday, adding: “Mother and babies are all well.”

Ms. Namukwaya informed Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper that her pregnancy posed challenges, as her partner deserted her upon learning that she was expecting twins.

Ms. Namukwaya welcomed her second child within a span of three years, delivering a baby girl in 2020.

She mentioned that her decision to have children stemmed from experiencing ridicule due to her childless status.

“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.

It remains uncertain whether she utilized a donor egg or one of her own that was cryopreserved during her earlier years.

Women generally experience menopause between the ages of 45 and 55, a period when fertility declines. However, advancements in medicine now enable them to conceive.

In-vitro fertilisation (IVF) is among the various techniques available. In this procedure, an egg is extracted from a woman’s ovaries and fertilized with sperm in a laboratory setting.

The resulting fertilized egg, referred to as an embryo, is subsequently implanted in the woman’s uterus for growth and development.