A 70-year-old Ugandan woman gave birth to twins, according to her obstetrician, in what the mother described as a miracle.

Safina Namukwaya expressed her delight at the arrival of her twins on Wednesday at a medical institution in Kampala, the capital, where she had received fertility treatment.

“This is extraordinary achievement, delivering twins to Africa’s oldest mother at 70 years old,” Doctor Edward Tamale Sali, who supervised her pregnancy and delivery, told AFP.

He said mother and babies—a boy and a girl—were still in the care of the Women’s Hospital International and Fertility Centre that he founded but were in good health.

“There is no way to express my joy at this moment,” said Namukwaya, who lives in the rural area of Masaka about 120 kilometres (75 miles) west of Kampala.

“At 70 years when I’m considered weak, unable to get pregnant and deliver, or look after a baby, and here is a miracle of the twins,” she told AFP by phone.

Namukwaya claimed she gave birth to a girl in 2020 after being taunted as a “cursed woman” who had previously failed to conceive.

She stated that her first husband died in 1992, leaving her childless, and that she met her present boyfriend in 1996.

Namukwaya, on the other hand, expressed disappointment that her partner had not visited her since she arrived at the hospital for the delivery.

“Maybe he is not happy that I delivered twins because men don’t want to know you are carrying more than one child in a womb for fear of may be responsibilities that come with that.”