40-year-old mother gives birth to 44 children: Even science is powerless?

The woman from Uganda (East Africa) has had 4 twins, 5 triplets and 5 quadruplets. Only once has she given birth to an only child. Mariem Nabatanzi had 44 children by the age of 40.

She was informed by her doctors that no family planning method was right for her.

Mariem Nabatanzi had 44 children by the age of 40.

The strange mechanism of the mother's body

Mariem got married at the age of 12 after being sold by her parents. Not long after, she became pregnant, giving birth to her first child at the age of 13. Currently, her 6 children have died and her husband has left with all the family's money, leaving Mariem with 38 children - 20 boys and 18 girls.

But Mariem - dubbed "Mama Uganda" in her hometown - soon realized that she was not like other women. When she saw herself constantly giving birth to twins, triplets, and quadruplets, she went to the doctor. Doctors said that she had abnormally large ovaries, which led to inflammation of the fallopian tubes.

She was told that birth control methods would not work and could cause serious health problems. Treatments are hard to come by in rural Uganda.

The difficult life of a mother

Mariem Nabatanzi's husband left her and took all of the family's money with her. Mariem did everything to support her children, from doing their hair, collecting scraps, making homemade Gin to selling herbal medicines.

All of her children are from her ex-husband, who left her in 2016, the same year she gave birth to her youngest child. One of Mariem's ​​sons said that his mother was a 'hero'.

Currently, Mariem and her parents live in four cramped houses made of cement blocks with corrugated iron roofs in a village surrounded by coffee fields 50km north of the capital Kampala.

A 'kind woman' gave some bunk beds to her children after her husband left, she said. But it's still pretty cramped, with 12 people in 1 bedroom and 2 people on a mattress.

Talking about her ex-husband, Mariem confided: 'I have grown up in tears. My man made me suffer a lot. All my time is spent taking care of my children and working to earn some money'

All the money she earns is immediately spent on food, clothing, medical treatment and children's tuition. On one wall in the house, she proudly hangs pictures of some of her children when they graduated from school.

Her oldest child, Ivan Kibuka, is in her 20s, forced to drop out of middle school when his mother can no longer afford it. 'Mother is very hard,' he said: 'Work is crushing her. We help her with things we can, like cooking and washing, but she still has to carry the whole family."

Mariem Nabatanzi's little cubs.

Science is powerless

Doctors say she is fertile and that no family planning method is right for her. Childbirth was the only way to 'calm down' Mariem's ​​body.

According to the Mayo Clinic, a private US medical company with offices around the world, 'severe irritable ovary syndrome is uncommon but can be life-threatening'.

Other complications may include fluid accumulation in the abdomen or chest, blood clots, kidney failure, ovarian torsion, or breathing problems.

According to Dr. Charles Kiggundu, a gynecologist at Mulago Hospital in Uganda's capital Kampala, the cause of the disease may be genetic.

'Her case is a genetic predisposition to ovulation - the release of multiple eggs in a cycle - which greatly increases the chances of multiple births.