Mariam Nabatanzi, a mother from Uganda had 44 kids when she was only 36-year-old, Mariam is now 39-years-old and takes care of her children by herself.
Mariam gave birth 20 times, in which 6 times she gave birth to twins, 4 sets of triplets, and 5 sets of quadruplets.
Mariam was married when she was just 12-years-old to a man who was 28 years older than him, she gave birth for the first time a year after she was married.
Unfortunately, the husband of Marian abandoned her and left her alone to take care of the 38 children they have.
Mariam went to see a doctor after she gave birth for the first time, the doctor said that she had “unusually large ovaries” and taking a contraceptive pill could damage her health.
Mariam is now struggling to provide food for her family, she lives in a village that is located north of Kampala, her children, who are 2-years-old to 23-years-old live in 4 cramped cement block houses.
Mariam said that her life has been full of tragedies, she even thinks that she has never experienced joy since the day she was born.
The mother of Mariam left her and her 5 siblings with her father when she was just 3 days old, her father decided to remarry again, but her stepmom killed her siblings by mixing glass in their food, luckily, Miriam was not around when this happened as she was in her relatives home when the incident happened.
Mariam added that she always wanted to have a huge family with having 6 kids.
Now she has to look after 38 of her kids, and she says that it is really hard.
Mariam said that her kids have to sleep on metal bunk beds and unclean floors, she added that their family consumes 25 kilograms of maize flour every day.
Mariam has worked as a hairdresser, decorator, and even collected and sold metal for money.
Ivan Kibuka, her eldest kid dropped out of school to help her out.
Ivan said, “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.”
All Mariam wants right now is her children to be happy, she said, “I have grown up in tears, my man has passed me through a lot of suffering. All my time has been spent looking after my children and working to earn some money. I started taking on adult responsibilities at an early stage. I have not had joy, I think, since I was born.”