South African woman gives birth to 10 children, breaks record

He said Sithole, who hails from Tembisa Township in Ekurhuleni, delivered her seven boys and three girls by Caesarean section.

Sithole, who has six-year-old twins, previously said that her pregnancy was natural as she was not on fertility treatment.
Speaking to the Pretoria News last night, Tsotetsi said Sithole gave birth to their bundles of joy 29 weeks into her pregnancy.

“It’s seven boys and three girls. She was seven months and seven days pregnant. I am happy. I am emotional. I can’t talk much. Let’s talk again in the morning please,” Tsotetsi said.

In an interview at their family home in Tembisa last month and the publication of which was delayed at the request of the couple for safety and cultural reasons, Sithole said she was shocked and fascinated by the pregnancy.

She said she had been in a state of disbelief when the doctors told her earlier this year that she was expecting six children (sextuplets) before further scans showed that it was in fact octuplets.

Initial tests
Two others could not be detected initially because they were inside the wrong tube, Sithole said.

“I am shocked by my pregnancy. It was tough at the beginning. I was sick. It was hard for me. It’s still tough but I am used to it now. I don’t feel the pain anymore, but it’s still a bit tough. I just pray for God to help me deliver all my children in a healthy condition, and for me and my children to come out alive. I would be pleased about it,” Sithole said.

The retail store manager said she was initially dubious when the doctors told her she was pregnant with octuplets.
“I didn’t believe it. I doubted it. I was convinced that if it was more, it would be twins or triplets, not more than that. When the doctor told me, I took time to believe it. Even when I saw the scans I didn’t believe it. But, as time went by, I realised it was indeed true. I battled to sleep at night though.”

Prof Dini Mawela, the deputy head of the school of medicine at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, said Sithole’s case was rare and usually caused by fertility treatments.

The children would spend the next few months in the incubator because it was a “high risk” pregnancy, Prof Mawela said.
“It’s quite a unique situation. I don’t know how often it happens. It’s extremely high risk (pregnancy). The danger is that, because there is not enough space in the womb for the children, the tendency is that they will be small. What would happen is that they would take them out pre-term because there is a risk if they keep them longer in there. The babies will come out small, chances of survival compromised. But all this depends on how long she carried them for.”

She said the causes of such pregnancies were “either nature or somebody who was having fertility treatment”.

*Via CGTN