A South African woman has just recently set a world record by giving birth to 10 babies in the same pregnancy.
According to South African news site, Independent Online, Gosiame Thamara Sithole gave birth to decuplets at a hospital in Pretoria on June 7th. The birth is said to have broken the record previously held by Halima Cisse of Mali, who gave birth to nine babies at a hospital in Morocco in May.
Sithole, a Gauteng-native was initially astonished when the doctors earlier revealed to her the number of children she should be expecting from the conception.
Later the scans would incorrectly fix the number to eight, but still wrong.
However, Sithole, who works as a retail store manager was delivered of seven boys and three girls by Caesarean section at 29 weeks.
Interestingly, she also has six-year-old twins and conceived the decuplets naturally which is rare in similar cases of births that have involved large numbers of children.
Although the earlier stages of conception were tough, according to her, the pregnancy was successful.
Meanwhile, the infants will be spending the next few months in incubators before she and her husband, Teboho Tsotetsi can take them home.
“It’s seven boys and three girls,” said Tsotetsi in an interview. “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.”
While this is not the first time a woman has given birth to nine babies, 25-year-old Sithole was the first woman to give birth to more than nine with all babies surviving.
Per Mali’s Health Minister, Fanta Siby, “the mother and babies are doing well so far.”
The babies are expected to spend at least two to three months in the incubators before they’ll be cleared to go home.
