Is she the most fertile woman world over? At only 39, a Ugandan woman is reported to have given birth to 44 children, all of them from the same man. She has, however, lost six.
Mariam Nabatanzi from Kabimbiri village in Uganda has four sets of triplets, three sets of quadruplets, six sets twins and a number of single births.
Mariam was married off at a tender age of 12 after she allegedly survived death at the hands of her stepmother who added pounded glass pieces to her food and that of her siblings. Unfortunately, her four siblings who ate the food died, Mariam was lucky to survive as she away at the meal time.
Mariam got married to a 40-year-old man in 1993. Oblivious of what was going on, she found herself at the man’s house and had to find ways of adapting to her new life. Her husband was polygamous and already had several children from his past marriages, and now Mariam had to take of all the children.
Mariam first gave birth a year after getting married, to twins. Two years down the line, she again gave birth this time to triplets and months later she got quadruplets!
By the time Mariam was at her sixth delivery, she was already having 18 children. Eager to stop, she went to see a doctor but she was told her she could not because her high ovary count would kill her if she stopped.
At age 23 and now with 25 children, Mariam went back to hospital to try stop herself from giving birth. Unfortunately, she was again adviced to continue as her ovary count was still high.
The older children help her to look after their siblings after her husband fled her and leaving her to single handedly raise all her children after 25 years of marriage. Her husband left after he married other women.
Mariam’s case first made headlines in 2017 when Ugandan press featured her as one of the women with the most children.
Her ability to conceive so many multiples is a genetic make-up. It results from specific genetic variations that are inherited. It includes cases when a woman ovulates more than once serially as well as when more than one ovum is released thus increasing chances of more than one being fertilised.