By Lifestyle Reporter
A 70-year-old may be the oldest woman in Africa to give birth, a hospital in Uganda has said.
Safina Namukwaya delivered twins, a boy and a girl, on Thursday after in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
IVF is one of many ways to help people with fertility problems to have a child and involves combining sperm with eggs in a laboratory before placing the embryo in the uterus.
The Kampala, Uganda-based Women’s Hospital International and Fertility Centre wrote in a Facebook post that “the mother and babies are all well”.
They said Safina set an African record by delivering the children at the age of 70.
“This story isn’t just about medical success; it’s about the strength and resilience of the human spirit,” the hospital added.
They claimed that she was now “Africa’s oldest mother”.
Safina told Ugandan broadcaster NTV that the experience of carrying twins was not easy and that she spent nearly all of her savings to get pregnant.
She said that her partner has since left her but that the doctor at the fertility clinic helped to pay for her travel.
Multiple Indian local news outlets reported in 2019 that a 74-year-old woman had given birth to twins via IVF.
European women are increasingly giving birth later, with the average mean age of women giving birth to their first child in the EU increasing from 28.8 years in 2013 to 29.4 in 2019.
