South African Woman Breaks Guinness World Record, Gives Birth to 10 Babies

Johannesburg: Gosiame Thamara Sithole, a woman from the Gauteng City of South Africa, has given birth to 10 babies on Monday night, which breaks the Guinness World Record held by Malian Halima Cissé, who gave birth to nine children in Morocco last month.

Her husband Teboho Tsotetsi said that she delivered her seven boys and three girls by Caesarean section. The 37-year-old Sithole, who has 6-year-old twins, previously said that her pregnancy was natural as she was not on fertility treatment.

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Tsotetsi said that she 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," her husband added.

According to the reports, she was shocked and fascinated by the pregnancy. She said that 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. As per the doctors, two others could not be detected initially because they were inside the wrong tube.

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She 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."

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"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," she added.

Her husband was overwhelmed by shock when he was told about the pregnancy. "But after I found out that these things do happen, and saw my wife's medical records, I got even more excited. I can't wait to have them in my arms," he said.

Professor Dini Mawela, the deputy head of the school of medicine at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, said that her 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.

"It's quite a unique situation. I don't know how often it happens. It's extremely high risk (pregnancy). It's a highly complex and high-risk situation. 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," Mawela added.

The record holder of the most children delivered at a single birth to survive was Nadya Suleman from America, who gave birth to eight children in 2009. Her octuplets were conceived through in vitro fertilisation.

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