Safina Namukwaya, a 70-year-old woman from Uganda, has made history by becoming one of the oldest mothers in the world after giving birth to twins using IVF treatment. She delivered a boy and a girl via caesarean at a fertility centre in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, on November 25, 2023 .
Namukwaya is the first woman outside of India to give birth at such an advanced age. The oldest mother in the world is Daljinder Kaur, an Indian woman who gave birth to a boy at the age of 72 in 2016. The second oldest mother is Omkari Panwar, another Indian woman who gave birth to twins at the age of 70 in 2008.
Namukwaya said it was a “miracle” to have children at her age, after being mocked for being childless for most of her life. She had been married twice before, but both marriages ended in divorce due to her infertility. She met her current partner, a 50-year-old man named Fred Kajoba, in 2017, and they decided to try IVF treatment after hearing about it on the radio.
She used a donor egg and her partner’s sperm for the IVF procedure, which cost her nearly all her savings. She said she wanted to have children to have someone to take care of her when she grew old, and to prove her critics wrong. However, her partner abandoned her when he found out she was carrying twins, leaving her alone and destitute.
She said she was grateful to the doctors and nurses at the fertility centre, who helped her throughout her pregnancy and delivery. The twins were born prematurely at 31 weeks and placed in incubators. They are currently stable and healthy. Namukwaya named them Wasswa and Nakato, which mean first-born twin and second-born twin in Luganda, her native language.
She said she hoped her story would inspire other women who are struggling with infertility, and show them that nothing is impossible with God’s help. She also appealed to the government and the public to support her and her twins, as she had no source of income or family support.
This is a remarkable story of a woman’s courage and resilience, as well as a medical achievement. However, it also raises ethical and social questions about the use of IVF treatment for older women, and the risks and challenges involved for both the mother and the children. What do you think about this story? Let us know in the comments below.
