By Raisa Okwaras,
Forty-one-year-old Mariam Nabatanzi wears a lot of hats, including ‘the world’s most fertile woman’, ‘Mama Africa’, and ‘Mother Uganda’. She earned these after making headlines for giving birth to forty-four children from one man, which she terms as God’s gift.
As she goes by, Maria resides in Mukono village in Mukono District, Central Uganda with her thirty-eight surviving children. Her father married her off forcefully when she was twelve years old and gave birth to her first child at thirteen years of age. Shockingly, Maria’s first delivery was triplets, then twins, then quadruplets on the third one.
During her interview Malika Kenya, Maria disclosed that even though she started having children at a young age, she has only given birth 15 times. The huge number is due to her giving birth to twins, triplets, and quadruplets. Maria has never given birth to just one child at a go.
She disclosed that she gave birth to 5 sets of quadruplets 5 times and six set of twins. However, she lost one set of twins. Her firstborns are 25 years old whereas her last born is 4 and a half years old.
When asked about why she kept on having children despite the growing number, Maria stated that as a woman, she had no control. After all, she had to be submissive to her husband according to the Traditional African Society.
“Being in an abusive relationship, she could not decide for herself on when to stop having children. However, after giving birth to her twentieth child, she decided to go for family planning,” said the interpreter.
Maria tried the IUD family planning method. However, the doctor later told her that it was not suitable for her. However, the doctor added that there were no family planning methods that were suitable for her and advised her to have more kids since she had a lot of eggs, meaning that she was very fertile.
According to Maria, her children is the only family she has. She had six siblings. However, her step mother poisoned them, leaving her alone. Her husband also abandoned them, forcing her to raise her thirty-eight surviving children alone.
When asked about how she is able to fend for all these children, Mariam stated that she faces challenges just like any other parent. She knows all her children and has never mistaken one for the other. Also, she uses the little she has to keep her children as comfortable as possible.
All the thirty-eight children go to the same primary school where they are distributed between Primary One and Primary Seven.
Source; Malika Kenya YouTube
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