Mariam Nabatanzi gave birth to twins a year after she was married off at the age...
KASAWO, Uganda - Mariam Nabatanzi gave birth to twins a year after she was married off at the age of 12. Five more sets of twins followed - along with four sets of triplets and five sets of quadruplets.
After her first sets of twins were born, Nabatanzi went to a doctor who told her she had unusually large ovaries. He advised her that birth control like pills might cause health problems.Family sizes are at their largest in Africa. In Uganda, the fertility rate averages out at 5.6 children per woman, one of the continent’s highest, and more than double the global average of 2.4 children, according to the World Bank.Her last pregnancy, two and a half years ago, had complications.
Desperate for cash, Nabatanzi turns a hand to everything: hairdressing, event decorating, collecting and selling scrap metal, brewing local gin and selling herbal medicine. The money is swallowed up by food, medical care, clothing and school fees. “Mum is overwhelmed, the work is crushing her, we help where we can, like in cooking and washing, but she still carries the whole burden for the family. I feel for her,” said her eldest child Ivan Kibuka, 23, who had to drop out of secondary school when the money ran out.Three days after she was born, Nabatanzi’s mother abandoned the family: her father, the newborn girl and her five siblings.
“I was seven years old then, too young to even understand what death actually meant. I was told by relatives what had happened,” she said.Providing a home for 38 children is a constant challenge.
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