A 37-year-old old woman from South Africa has claimed she has given birth to 10 babies earlier this month and which will most likely get her listed in the Guinness Book of Records for delivering the most number of babies at once. The image of Gosiame Thamara Sithole from the Tembisa township near Johannesburg with an over-expanded stomach went viral like wildfire on social media and led to the coining of the term ‘decuplets’.
However, the babies have not made a public appearance yet, prompting speculation that the claim made by the parents may be fake. The South African government, meanwhile, has still not been able to verify how many babies the 37-year-old actually delivered.
According to the Associated Press, the department of social development in the Gauteng province said they have traced Sithole and spokesperson Feziwe Ndwayana said they would make an announcement after meeting with the family. AP also reported that another local government department said earlier this week that it had no record of the babies’ births in any of the province’s hospitals.
Sithole’s news comes just a month after a Malian woman gave birth to nine babies in Morocco, the first case of nonuplets. Pretoria News newspaper reported citing her husband Teboho Tsotetsi that Sithole gave birth at a hospital in Pretoria. The newspaper further reported that all the babies were born prematurely.
The couple already has twins aged six and now the family will have a dozen kids.
“It’s seven boys and three girls. She was seven months and seven days pregnant. I am happy. I am emotional,” Tsotetsi said, adding the birth of 10 babies at once was a big surprise as doctors only found eight in prenatal scans – which use sound waves to form images that show a baby’s shape and position.
But relatives and neighbours of the family have insisted the news is indeed true. Speaking to AP, Wilson Machaya, a neighbour of Sithole, said it was a blessing to have 10 babies at once and he would assist the family in any way possible.
(With AP inputs)
