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A 70-year-old woman, who delivered twins on Wednesday, has become one of the oldest moms in the world, a hospital in Uganda said. In 2019, 73-year-old Yerramatti Mangayamma, from India, gave birth to twins as well.
According to the Women's Hospital International and Fertility Centre, Safina Namukwaya safely delivered the brother and sister by C-section.
A reporter for Kampala's NTV news channel said the pair — who weighed 3 pounds and 12 ounces each — were born at 34 weeks gestation.
He interviewed Namukwaya shortly before her surgery. She described her twin pregnancy as a "miracle."
She said that she had delivered her first child at the age of 67 in 2020 after facing stigma in her community for being childless.
"One day, a young boy said I had been cursed by my mother to die without a child," Namukwaya said.
The senior went on to say that she'd suffered a miscarriage in the past and lost her husband in 1992. She met another partner four years later.
However, she said, the father of the twins had not been at her side.
"Men don't like to be told that you are carrying more than one child," she said. "Ever since I was admitted here, my man has never showed up," she added, referring to the hospital complex.
Namukwaya told the interviewer that she had been "very sick" due to her double pregnancy and had spent nearly all her "savings" on healthcare.
But, she said that she had "no words" for her specialist, Edward Sali, apart from "kindness."
It is not known whether she used her own eggs — possibly frozen when she was younger — or those of a donor to conceive via IVF.
She told NTV that the twins were "in the hands of God" and that "every child comes with a blessing."
Namukwaya suggested that she had decided to become pregnant because she wanted help as she grew older.
"I looked after other people's children and saw them grow up and leave me alone," she said, adding, "I wondered who would take care of me when I grow old."
