70-year-old Ugandan woman gives birth to twins through In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)

Namukwya gave birth to a boy and a girl on Wednesday, November 29 and it was a cesarean delivery.

She conceived through In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), according to a post shared by the Women's Hospital International and Fertility Centre in Kampala on Facebook.

IVF is an infertility treatment, a condition in which a woman fails to conceive.

During the IVF process, an egg is removed from a woman's ovaries and fertilised with sperm in a laboratory. The fertilised egg, called an embryo, is then put in a woman's womb to grow and develop.

Her twins weighed 2 kilograms each when she gave birth at 34 weeks.

“Celebrating our 20th anniversary, we've achieved the extraordinary – delivering twins to Africa's oldest mother aged 70!” the hospital said.

“This story isn’t just about medical success; it’s about the strength and resilience of the human spirit.”

It is Namukwaya's second delivery in three years, having given birth to a baby girl in 2020.

Reports indicate that she had wanted to have children after she was mocked for being childless.

"I looked after people's children and saw them grow up and leave me alone. I wondered who would take care of me when I grow old," she was quoted in the media.

It is not clear whether she used a donor egg or one of her own that was frozen and stored when she was younger.

Typically women go through menopause between the ages of 45 and 55. Fertility drops around this time but advances in medicine have made it possible for them to give birth.