Mariam Nabatanzi Babirye (born in 1980) also known as Mama Uganda or Mother Uganda, is a Ugandan woman known for birthing 44 children. As of April 2023, her eldest children were twenty-eight years old, and the youngest were six years old.
Born around 1980, Babirye first gave birth when she was 13 years old, having been forced into marriage the year prior. By the age of 36, she had given birth to a total of 44 children, including three sets of quadruplets, four sets of triplets, and six sets of twins, for a total of fifteen births. The number of multiple births was caused by a rare genetic condition causing hyper ovulation as a result of enlarged ovaries. In 2019, when Babirye was aged 40, she underwent a medical procedure to prevent any further pregnancies.
At the age of twenty-three, she had given birth to twenty-five children, but was advised to continue giving birth, as it would help reduce further fertility.
Those affected with Babirye’s condition are often advised that abstinence from pregnancy can cause health issues.
She first became a mother in 1994 with a set of twins, followed by triplets in 1996.
She then gave birth to a set of quadruplets 19 months later. She never found the rate at which she was procreating unusual due to her family history; she had been quoted as saying: “My father gave birth to forty-five children with different women, and these all came in quintuplets, quadruples, twins and triplets.
According to Charles Kiggundu, a gynecologist at the Mulago National Specialised Hospital, after giving birth to her last set of twins via cesarian section, Babirye underwent tubal ligation, preventing any further pregnancies. One of the boys from that set of twins died in childbirth, being her most recent child to pass away.