The African woman gave birth to 3-4 children every few years and became the largest mother in the world. Doctors forbade her not to give birth due to a rare genetic feature
Life is often unfair and gives "prejudices" in different directions. While some women cannot get pregnant in any way and once again go to IVF procedure, others do not know what to do with their bodies in order to finally stop giving birth. This was the situation with a resident of Uganda, Mariam Nabatanzi: in 23 years she gave birth to 44 children. Neither birth control pills nor a spiral could stop a series of pregnancies. Doctors diagnosed hyperovulation and forbade the woman to have surgery to ligate the fallopian tubes. Later it turned out that the diagnosis was only partly true.
Disease or genetic trait
Mariam Nabtanazi was born into a family of a prolific father. She recalls that he had about 45 children from a wide variety of women. Mariam hardly knew her mother - she died a few years after the birth of the girl. The father left five children, with whom he soon married again. The stepmother took a dislike to the offspring of her husband from her previous wife, and one day, far from being a fine day, she fed them porridge with broken glass. All of Miriam's brothers and sisters were killed. By a lucky coincidence, the girls were simply not at home that day.
To get rid of the last stepdaughter, her stepmother sold her to an adult man: in 1993, Mariam was forcibly married to a groom who was 40 years old. Mariam herself was only 12 at the time, but such early marriages are considered the norm in Uganda. The husband not only regularly raised his hand to the girl, but also forced her to look after the children from past wives. At the same time, he performed marital duty regularly: a year after the wedding, Mariam gave birth to her first twins.
The kids made Mariam very happy, although she herself was still a child at that time. Despite the difficult life with her husband, the girl dreamed of a big family and six children. She managed to "overfulfill the plan" rather quickly: in 1996 she gave birth to triplets, and two years later - to quadruplets. The girl did not see anything strange in this, because her father's children were also born in "parties" of three or four twins.
Mariam wanted a family of six children / photo mirror.co.uk
I would have stopped here, but Mariam's body had its own plans in this regard. After the sixth pregnancy, she already had 18 children. The husband regularly visited his wife at night and did not want to hear about contraception. Then Mariam herself decided to go to the doctor. The local doctor gave her a disappointing diagnosis: he decided that the girl had an excess of eggs in her body. Because of this, it is absolutely impossible for her not to give birth. Allegedly, the eggs will accumulate in the body and destroy the reproductive system. For the same reason, the doctor did not prescribe birth control. As a result, Mariam went home with nothing, and in the coming years she gave birth to seven more children.
Mariam went to doctors several times with her fertility / photo cnn.gr
At 23, with 25 children in her arms, Mariam again turned to doctors, this time in another hospital. There she was told that her fertility was genetically determined: this is a syndrome of hyperovulation, due to which the body produces more than three eggs in one cycle. At the same time, you can not become pregnant and not give birth, there is no harm to the body here. The woman was prescribed birth control pills, but after a couple of months she became pregnant again. After the next birth, Mariam decided to put herself intrauterine device, but this led to complications: she suffered from dizziness and vomiting, often fainted and even ended up in a hospital bed.
Mariam's children were born despite contraception / photo mirror.co.uk
In 1996, the woman gave birth to her last, 44th child. These were the only births that had to be carried out with the help of caesarean section. At Mariam's request, the doctors made it so that she no longer had children. The gynecologist who performed the operation said that he “cut out the uterus from the inside,” although, most likely, the fallopian tubes were simply bandaged.
The "coming" spouse and the hardships of motherhood
Of the 44 children that Mariam gave birth to from the only man in her life, 38 survived. For Uganda, this is an incredible indicator of how much a mother cared for her babies. What can not be said about the father: after the birth of half of his heirs, he left home, and visited his wife only occasionally, and then at night. If the older children still remember what the head of the family looks like, then the younger ones have not even seen him. As Mariam herself said, he gave names to newborns by phone.
Mariam's huge family pulls on her shoulders / photo mirror.co.uk
The woman completely pulls her entire huge family on herself. She does not shun any job, which is not so much in Uganda. Now 40 years old, Mariam readily works as a hairdresser, dresses up brides for the wedding, repairs clothes and shoes, prepares food to order and even lays bricks at a construction site. But money is still critically lacking, because a giant family eats at least 7 kg of beans, 22 kg of corn flour and 2.5 kg of sugar per day. And drinking water, which is very expensive in Uganda, consumes 15 cans every day.
Mariam spends a tremendous amount of money on food every day / photo cnn.gr
Mariam never complains and says that she has not regretted herself for a long time. The main goal in the life of this amazing woman is for the children to learn and get a chance for a happier life than she herself lived. Her older children graduated from school and received a secondary specialized education. They do not live with their mother, but try to help her. The younger ones also set good goals in life: many of Mariam's children want to become teachers, doctors and lawyers. “Children are a joy,” Mariam said in an interview with the British tabloid The Mirror. - They are my happiness, not a burden. And I am proud to take care of them. I don't get tired of cooking, washing and bathing. Children grow better if they have the love and care of their mother. "
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