37-year-old woman sets world record with 38 children

A 37-year-old woman from Kabimbiri village, Mukono District, outside of Kampala, Ugandan has made world record for giving birth to 38 children.

Mariam Nabatanzi Babirye has had six sets of twins, four sets of triplets, three sets of quadruplets and single births. The oldest of her children 23 years old while the youngest is four months. Ten of them are girls and the rest are boys.

She had her last baby through Caesarian section in December 2016, after which doctors cut her uterus from inside, according to the Daily Monitor of Uganda.

Accoding to the report, Mariam was married to a man 40 years old man at the age of 12 in 1993.

“I did not know I was being married off. People came home and brought things for my father. When time came for them to leave, I thought I was escorting my aunt but when I got there, she gave me away to the man.”

She had her first twins when was 13, in 1994. Two years after, she gave birth to triplets and a year and seven months later she added a set of quadruplets.

Mariam claimed it was not strange to her because she had seen it before in her lineage.

“My father gave birth to 45 children with different women and these all came in quintuplets, quadruples, twins and triplets,” said the woman, who is called by fellow villagers as Nalongo Muzaala Bana, “the twin mother that produces quadruplets”

A gynecologist at Mulago Hospital and President of gynecologists and obstetricians, Dr. Charles Kiggundu, said it was possible for Mariam to have taken after her father.

“Her case is genetic predisposition to hyper-ovulate (releasing multiple eggs in one cycle), which significantly increases the chance of having multiples; it is always genetic,” he explained.

The doctor told Mariam that she could not be stopped then because she had a high ovary count which would eventually kill her if she stopped.

“Having these unfertilised eggs accumulate pose not only a threat to destroy the reproductive system but can also make the woman lose her life,” Dr Ahmed Kikomeko from Kawempe General Hospital explained.

“I was advised to keep producing since putting this on hold would mean death. I tried using the Inter Uterine Device (IUD) but I got sick and vomited a lot, to the point of near death. I went into a coma for a month,” she said.

She wanted to stop having more babies with 25 children already at the age of 23; she went back to hospital to see the doctor.

“I was checked in at Mulago Hospital and advised to continue producing since the ovary count was still high.”

According to a Uganda County Councillor Samari Musenero, Mariam had all the children with the same man.

“The woman is struggling to support her offspring because she receives no financial assistance from the father of the children,” the politician said.

Musenero said politicians from the district had mobilised government funds to provide Mariam i with maize seeds to plant.