Zach Crawford
A woman in Uganda became a mother of twins at the age of 70 thanks to in vitro fertilization
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A 70-year-old mother in Uganda. Safina Namukwaya She gave birth to twins at a fertility clinic in the capital, Kampala. It is the result of in vitro fertilization of a donor egg.
A 70-year-old mother in Uganda
In a clinic Women’s Hospital in Kampala, in Ugandaa small central African country located on the northern coast of Lake Victoria, a 70-year-old woman has become the oldest mother on the continent.
Her name is Savina Namukwaya She completed a natural pregnancy and gave birth to twin boys and a girl by caesarean section. The hospital doctors were enthusiastic and commented: “We have achieved an extraordinary result.”
Women go through menopause around the age of 50 and lose the ability to reproduce. However, it is possible to become mothers at an advanced age thanks to a technique often used for couples who have problems conceiving: In vitro fertilization.
Technique used: in vitro fertilization
In vitro fertilization consists of fertilizing an egg with sperm in the laboratoryThus generating a human fetus. This is then implanted into the uterus of the woman who is often the donor.
In the case of Safina Namukwaya, the fertilized eggs were not hers, but those of another woman who donated them. The 70-year-old, who became a mother in 2020, is still following up Nine months pregnant.
Birth of twins, It is very rare in nature, and is becoming more common Specifically when certain techniques are used to increase a woman’s fertility, such as in vitro fertilization.
The story of Safina Namukwaya
Safina Namukwaya was born in a village 120 kilometers north of the Ugandan capital, Kampala. As a young woman, despite being married, she was unable to have children and was thus cast out of her community because she was considered such. “Cursed woman.”
It awakened in her the desire to have children at any cost. She and her new partner, who had donated sperm for in vitro fertilization, then embarked on a trip to a fertility clinic in Kampala.
Eventually, she was able to give birth to a girl in 2020 and then another, this time with twins, in 2023. However, she is not the biggest mother in the worldThe record is held by an Indian woman who was 73 years old at the time of giving birth in 2019.
Image source: Facebook/International Women’s Hospital and Fertility Centre
Laurence Malcom
