Jou ma se 10 kinders
A South African woman has given birth to 10 babies, setting a new world record.
Gosiame Thamara Sithole, 37, gave birth to her decuplets – two more than doctors had earlier detected during the scans – at a hospital in Pretoria on Monday night.
Husband Teboho Tsotetsi said Gosiame, who hails from Tembisa Township in Ekurhuleni, delivered her seven boys and three girls by Caesarean section.
The mom, who also has six-year-old twins, previously told the Pretoria News that her pregnancy was natural as she was not on fertility treatment.
She broke the Guinness World Record held by Malian mom Halima Cissé, who gave birth to nine children in Morocco last month.
An overcome Teboho told the Pretoria News: “It’s seven boys and three girls. She was seven months and seven days pregnant. I am happy. I am emotional.”
In an interview at their family home in Tembisa last month, Gosiame said she was shocked and fascinated by the pregnancy.
The retail store manager said doctors initially said she was expecting six children before further scans revealed that it was in fact octuplets.
The two others could not be detected because they were inside the wrong tube, she said.
She was shocked as she had expected twins or even triplets, and then she suffered from severe leg pain and heartburn early into the pregnancy.
The mom said she had sleepless nights worrying about her unborn children: “How would they fit in the womb? Would they survive? What if they came out conjoined at the head, in the stomachs or hands?
“I asked myself all these questions until the doctor assured me that my womb was starting to expand inside. God made a miracle and my children stayed in the womb without any complications.”
The couple already has names for their babies.
Dad Teboho, who is unemployed, said he was also overcome by shock when he was told about the pregnancy: “I could not believe it. I felt like one of God’s chosen children. I felt blessed to be given these kinds of blessings when many people out there need children.
“I had to go do my own research on whether a person could really conceive eight children.”
The premature born babies, who are all tiny, will spend the next few months in the incubator.
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