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37-year-old mother of twins gives birth to 10 babies, breaks Guinness World Record
A 37-year-old mother of twins who has given birth to 10 babies has broken the Guinness World Record on the most children born at the same birth.
37-year-old mother of twins gives birth to 10 babies, breaks Guinness World Record
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Her husband Teboho Tsotetsi has been reported as saying that she was delivered of seven boys and three girls through Caesarean section 29 weeks into her pregnancy.
“It’s seven boys and three girls. She was seven months and seven days pregnant. I am happy. I am emotional. I can’t talk much. Let’s talk again in the morning please,” Tsotetsi told the Pretoria News.
Reports say doctors had earlier told her this year that she was carrying six children (sextuplets) while further scans showed that it was octuplets.
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iol.co.za reported Sithole as saying that two of the babies could not be detected initially because they were inside the wrong tube.
In an interview during the latter part of her pregnancy, she reportedly said the pregnancy period was tough as she had sleepless nights thinking.
“I am shocked by my pregnancy. It was tough at the beginning. I was sick. It was hard for me. It’s still tough but I am used to it now. I don’t feel the pain anymore, but it’s still a bit tough. I just pray for God to help me deliver all my children in a healthy condition, and for me and my children to come out alive. I would be pleased about it.
“How would they fit in the womb? Would they survive? What if they came out conjoined at the head, in the stomachs or hands? Like, what would happen? I asked myself all these questions until the doctor assured me that my womb was starting to expand inside. God made a miracle and my children stayed in the womb without any complications,” Sithole said.
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Her unemployed husband has decided to do away with fear and embrace the children.
“I could not believe it. I felt like one of God’s chosen children. I felt blessed to be given these kinds of blessings when many people out there need children. It’s a miracle which I appreciate. I had to go do my own research on whether a person could really conceive eight children. It was a new thing. I knew about twins, triplets and even quadruplets.
“But after I found out that these things do happen, and saw my wife’s medical records, I got even more excited. I can’t wait to have them in my arms,” Tsotetsi said.
Meanwhile, Professor Dini Mawela, the deputy head of the school of medicine at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University described Sithole’s case as a rare one mostly occasioned by fertility treatments.
“It’s quite a unique situation. I don’t know how often it happens. It’s extremely high risk (pregnancy). It’s a highly complex and high-risk situation. The danger is that, because there is not enough space in the womb for the children, the tendency is that they will be small.
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“What would happen is that they would take them out pre-term because there is a risk if they keep them longer in there. The babies will come out small, chances of survival compromised. But all this depends on how long she carried them for
“Remember, when they do fertility treatment, they inject as many eggs as possible to increase the chances of conception because the assumption is that some of them would die. But they might all survive. So, I don't know whether she conceived this naturally, which is possible, or whether this is a product of fertility treatment,” Mawela has been quoted as saying.
The babies will however be in the incubator at the hospital for a considerable time before they are discharged.
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