At just 39 years old, Mariam Nabatanzi of Uganda is considered to be the most fertile woman in the world. Mariam has given birth naturally 44 times, and now as a single mom she is solely responsible for caring for her 38 living children, whom she shares a four-room home with in her home country. Mariam's story is so interesting that she was the topic of a docuseries titled Mama Uganda that premiered in 2020.
More from MamásLatinas: Fertility-boosting foods you can easily add to your diet
Mariam's husband reportedly abandoned her and the children several years ago, and although Mariam works as a hairdresser and does various odd jobs to earn money, she and the children are living in poverty. One of her oldest children was forced to drop out of school in order to help care for the rest of the family. How did Mariam get into this situation? Keep reading to find out all the details.
Mariam has a tragic past.
Mariam's mother left their family when she was a newborn, leaving her father to raise her and her siblings. Her father remarried a woman who poisoned all of Mariam's siblings while she was away visiting a relative, making her the only survivor of the tragedy.
"I was seven years old then, too young to even understand what death actually meant," Mariam told the Mirror.
She became a child bride.
Mariam explained that she was married off to a man four times her age when she was just 12 years old. She gave birth to her first set of twins less than two years later, at age 13. From there, she continued to become pregnant with multiples at various intervals.
Mariam's father also had many children.
"My father gave birth to 45 children with different women and these all came in quintuplets, quadruples, twins and triplets," Mariam said, explaining that she didn't initially find her birth patterns or the size of her family unusual.
She only wanted six kids, though.
The average number of children per family in Uganda is 5.4, and in keeping with that, Mariam said that when she first got married and started her family, she intended to have only six children, but that was not to be.
She tried to figure out contraception.
In the Mama Uganda documentary, Mariam explains that after giving birth to her sixth child, she looked into contraception options but says the doctors told her she had "so many egg cells" and that if she tried to prevent more births she could die.
Hormonal birth control made her sick.
Mariam also said that she didn't choose birth control options like the pill or an IUD because they made her feel sick. This left her with few options, and she continued to get pregnant for many years.
Mariam actually has a genetic condition.
"Her case is genetic predisposition to hyper-ovulate, which is releasing multiple eggs in one cycle, which significantly increases the chance of having multiples; it is always genetic," said Dr. Charles Kiggundu, who is a gynecologist at Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda.
She has given birth to 15 sets of multiples and one singlet.
In total, Mariam has now given birth to six sets of twins, four sets of triplets, and five sets of quadruplets. Her last pregnancy was her only child born alone; however, it was a twin pregnancy, and the other twin died during childbirth.
That isn't the only child she's lost.
Although Mariam has 38 living children, she's actually given birth to 44 babies. Six of her children have died, at least some during childbirth. Some reports indicate that local authorities attempted to ban Mariam from having any more children after her last pregnancy.
Mariam is now a single mother.
Mariam is now a single mother to 10 girls and 28 boys. Her husband abandoned the family a few years ago, and Mariam hasn't had any children since. She spends nearly all of her time working various jobs to support her children.
Her husband made her miserable.
"I have grown up in tears, my man has passed me through a lot of suffering," Mariam said. "All my time has been spent looking after my children and working to earn some money," she explained in the documentary.
He was a polygamist.
"My husband was polygamous with many children from his past relationships who I had to take care of because their mothers were scattered all over. He was also violent and would beat me at any opportunity he got even when I suggested an idea that he didn’t like," Mariam told the Daily Monitor.
Mariam works tirelessly to provide for her children.
Mariam does whatever she can to provide for her 38 children. She works as a hairdresser, decorates for events, sells scrap metal, and brews and sells her own gin in order to earn money to feed and educate her family.
She dreams of a better life for her children.
Mariam expressed in the documentary that she hopes that her children will all be able to graduate school—some already have—and that she simply wishes them to be happy, noting that she herself has "not had joy."
Her children recognize her struggle.
"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 son Ivan Kibuka, who left school to help the family.
