A South African woman has reportedly given birth to 10 babies, in what would be a world record earlier held by an American woman, according to a local media report. Gosiame Thamara Sithole, 37, gave birth to seven boys and three girls, reported Pretoria News, which could break the Guinness World Records for most children delivered at a single birth to survive.
According to BBC, a South African has confirmed the birth of 10 children, while another official said that they are yet to see the babies. Meanwhile, Guinness World Records said that it was investigating the claim, reported the British media network.
Quoting Sithole’s husband, Teboho Tsotetsi, Pretoria News said that the doctors had detected eight babies during the medical scans, two less than the South African woman delivered on Monday night.
“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,” the local English daily quoted Tsotetsi as saying.
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Sithole previously gave birth to twins, who are now six years old. While multiple births involving more than three babies are often the result of fertility treatment, Sithole, as per Pretoria News, said that her pregnancy was natural.
The Guinness World Records for most children delivered at a single birth to survive is currently held by Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to six boys and two girls in California, US, in 2009. Suleman’s babies were conceived with the aid of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatment and were nine weeks premature when they were delivered by Caesarean section.
“The Suleman octuplets are only the second full set of octuplets to be born alive in the United States and, one week after their birth, surpassed the previous worldwide survival rate for a complete set of octuplets set by the Chukwu octuplets in 1998,” the Guinness World Records website says.
Last month, a 25-year-old Malian woman had given birth to nine babies, two more than doctors had detected during medical scans.
