A simple African woman. She was married off at age 12. A year later, she gave birth to her first child. And in just 20 years, she became the mother of 44 children.
The family lived in complete poverty, and only when this dubious record became known to the world did food and clothing appear at home, and children could get an education.We are in Uganda, a state in East Africa, which for decades has been consistently ranked among the poorest countries in the world. Since independence in 1962, the former British colony has endured a series of military conflicts and the rule of Idi Amin, one of the most odious and monstrous dictators of the 20th century.
Uganda has a population of almost 35 million people, but only 13% are urban. The country has the second highest birth rate in the world (48 babies per 1,000 inhabitants) and fertility (6.73 children per woman). But the average life expectancy for men is 52 years and for women 54 years.
According to the UN, almost 40% of Uganda’s population lives on less than US$ 1.25 (about 80 rubles at the official exchange rate) a day.
And yet, as in all backward countries, an extremely narrow (less than 1% of the population) stratum of the so-called “elite” controls most of the national wealth.
Our heroine’s name is Mariam Nabatanzi Babiri. She was born in 1981 into a huge but extremely poor family. Her father was a real producer – several of his wives gave birth to 45 children, and that’s just the ones who survived infancy.
Mariam recounted that because of her inability to feed such a horde, at least 5 of her siblings were deliberately deprived of life by her new stepmother. At the time, the girl swore to herself that she would never do that to her children, no matter how hard it was. If only she had known how many children she would have…
Girls in poor families were not treated with any restraint. Once they reached puberty, they were married. No one asked the daughter’s consent, the parents were guided by economic considerations – whoever paid the highest bride price would get it. So in 1993 the 12 year old Mariam was given away to a 40 year old widower from a neighboring village. In exchange they got a cow.
A year after the marriage, the 13-year-old mother gave birth to twins. The second and subsequent births were also multiple births.
In total Mariam gave birth 15 times and gave birth to 6 pairs of twins.
4 triplets
5 groups of quadruplets.
Total 44 children. Of these, 20 boys and 18 girls survived infancy, and judging by the latest journalistic reports, they are all alive and well.
Doctors diagnosed the woman with a rare genetic disorder, most likely hereditary. Every pregnancy turned into a multiple pregnancy. She was not allowed to take birth control pills. She only had to give birth.
At the same time the family lived in very difficult circumstances and new mouths did not add optimism to the parents. The once well-to-do husband was no longer able to feed so many offspring.
Mariam asked doctors to perform a sterilization operation, but the local surgeons refused. The woman was lucky enough to have her case described in a scientific journal. Doctors all over the world became interested in this unique mother.
Finally, at age 36, just after another delivery, a group of British doctors made Mariam operation. She never got pregnant again. She is now 41 years old and a single mother. Her great-aged husband ran away in 2016, leaving a dilapidated house and a crumbling household to his wife and children. He has no contact with any of his offspring.
The attention of Western doctors, and then journalists, had positive consequences for Mariam’s family. The government began to provide financial assistance and allotted land for building a new house and vegetable garden. Foreign grants were allocated. Children were given the opportunity to study, including vocational training.
But to say that Mariam’s family is not bathed in luxury. She has no source of permanent income – what kind of work can there be.
As reported in 2019, “Mama Uganda” (as Mariam is now called in the country) and most of her children (the older ones are studying or working in big cities) still live in their village, in four one-story houses. Three of them are bedrooms with metal bunk beds for the children.
Today there is enough room in the beds for everyone, while previously the whole gang slept on a dirty clay floor.
The government gives the unique family 25 kg of corn flour a day, beans and sugar, but you have to buy fish or meat with your own money. No woman in today’s world can even come close to Mariam. In second place on the list of “record-breakers” are four mothers from Italy, the United States, Argentina, and Brazil, who each gave birth to 32 children.