Uganda: 70-year-old woman gives birth to twins

A Ugandan woman has become Africa's oldest new mother after giving birth aged 70 to twins on Wednesday in Kampala.

Safina Namukwaya delivered the boy and girl twins via caesarean prematurely at 31 weeks. The babies were put in incubators and are said to be stable. 

"When I had a checkup, they told me I had twins and I was very happy," says Namukwaya. 

The woman had undergone fertility treatment at the Women's Hospital International and Fertility Centre.

"This is extraordinary achievement, delivering twins to Africa's oldest mother at 70 years," Doctor Edward Tamale Sali, who supervised her pregnancy and delivery, says.

This is Namukwaya's second delivery in three years after giving birth to a girl in 2020.

"Age is just a number. A young woman can also die of complications from pregnancy," says Sali. "And an old woman, if she is fit, can also survive."

Adances in medicine have meant that even past menopause, which typically happens between the ages of 45 to 55, women like Namukwaya are now able to give birth.

The twins' birth makes the Ugandan woman Africa's oldest new mother.