'Africa's oldest mother' gives birth to twins aged 70 through IVF

A 70-year-old woman has successfully given birth to twins in Uganda.

The team at the Women's Hospital International and Fertility Centre in the country's capital, Kampala, posted to Facebook about the "historic event" after Safina Namukwaya delivered a boy and a girl on Wednesday.

The children were conceived through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and born via caesarian section.

The hospital said it makes Ms Namukwaya "Africa's oldest mother", writing: "This story isn't just about medical success; it's about the strength and resilience of the human spirit."

"Mother and babies are all well," the statement added.

Ms Namukwaya told NTV Uganda: "I was brought here by a friend who got a baby through the same procedure and she assured me that I would be able to get a child after trying for a long time."

She spoke about struggling carrying twins at the age of 70, and also explained that her decision to get pregnant was prompted by being insulted in her neighbourhood.

"One time, a very young boy got a misunderstanding and heckled at me, saying I had been cursed by my mother to die without a child," Ms Namukwaya said.

"I cared for other peoples' children, and I would see them grow and leave me alone."

It is her second delivery in three years after she gave birth to a baby girl in 2020.

At 70, Ms Namukwaya is just three years behind the world's oldest living mother, an Indian woman named Erramatti Mangamma who currently holds the record.

Ms Mangamma was 73 when she gave birth through IVF, via caesarean section, in Hyderabad, India.

IVF is a medical procedure whereby a woman's egg is fertilised by sperm in a test tube or elsewhere outside the body.

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