.jpeg&w=60&q=100&h=60)
UGANDA – When Safinah Namukwaya got married to Badru Walusimbi, a resident of Nunda Village in Lwabenge Sub County, Kalungu District in 1996 in Uganda, her only wish was to produce at least one baby for him.
Despite being in marriage for 24 years, Namukwaya had not been blessed with children.
When she attempted to get a baby in her first marriage with another man between 1973 – 1978, she suffered an ectopic pregnancy (This is when a fertilised egg implants and grows outside the main cavity of the uterus).
After reaching menopause (45 years), Namukwaya’s dream of becoming a mother had started to fade away like a puff of smoke. In March 2019, when she clocked 63, she visited the Women’s Hospital International and Fertility Centre in Bukoto, Kampala and upon examination, Dr Edward Tamale Ssali, the director of the hospital realised that she can conceive despite her advanced age.
Months later, she conceived and on Thursday (June 25, 2020), Namukwaya gave birthe to a baby girl at Masaka Regional Referral Hospital.
In an interview on Sunday, Dr Ssali said he realized that Namukwaya had blocked tubes and recommended that she is subjected to In -Vitro Fertilisation (IVF), a scientific process where ovaries (eggs) are removed from a woman and sperm from a man, and fertilisation is done in the laboratory in a test tube.
“What we did is that, her egg cells were fertilised outside her body and when the embryos formed, we put them back into her womb,” Dr Ssali said.
He added: “She was lucky that her first attempt resulted in a successful pregnancy because some women make several attempts and fail.”
