SA Woman Gives Birth To 10 Babies, Breaks Guinness World Record

A South African woman has given birth to 10 babies, breaking the Guinness World Record held by Malian Halima Cissé who gave birth to nine children in Morocco last month.

Gosiame Thamara Sithole (37) from Gauteng Province gave birth to her decuplets at a hospital in Pretoria on Monday night, her husband Teboho Tsotetsi confirmed.

The doctors had earlier detected 8 babies during the medical scans and were surprised when the woman delivered 10.

Tsotetsi 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 told the Pretoria News 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.

In an interview at their family home in Tembisa last month, Sithole said doctors told her earlier this year that she was expecting six children (sextuplets).

Further scans showed that it was in fact octuplets as 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.

… Initially, there were six children. Only to find that the other two were in the wrong tube. My legs were painful.

The doctors did further scans and they found the children were in the wrong tube. That was sorted and I have been okay since then.

I can’t wait for my children. We have already given them names.

Sithole is employed as a retail store manager while her husband Tsotetsi, is unemployed.

More: IOL