Thanks a dozen to mum expecting 12 babies

When Nadya Suleman became an “Octomom” earlier this year through the birth of her eight babies the world may have thought this is the furthest it can go.

But now an unnamed Tunisian teacher in her 30s is said to be expecting a record-breaking 12 babies. The woman is reportedly expecting six boys and six girls after turning to fertility treatment following two miscarriages in two years.

If all the babies are born and survive the woman would be the world’s “Duodecamom”, dethroning Ms Suleman. In January, Ms Suleman — a single mother of six — defied doctors’ predictions when she gave birth to six boys and two girls through fertility treatment.

Reality television

Last month, the “Octomom” signed agreements for all her 14 children to star in a reality television show. A British production company began filming a fly-on-the-wall documentary that could earn $250,000 (Sh19.5 million) for her children over the next three years and the same amount for her.

But last week, she admitted that she did not think into the future when deciding to keep all the embryos. “I screwed myself,” she is quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying.

In Kenya, the highest recorded multiple births was two boys and two girls born to Eva Mukhwana Wambua in May this year. Locally, raising twins, leave alone duodecaplets, would not only be emotionally distressing but expensive.

For instance, a 36-Pampers pack costs Sh700 accumulating to Sh5,600 for eight. A tin of baby formula, which is equally expensive, does not last either. Mrs Wambua’s husband, Wambua Musau, told the Nation in a June interview that it was not easy raising the four babies.

Back to the Tunisian woman, fertility experts say that although it was possible to conceive 12 babies, such a pregnancy was fraught with risk. Some have been quoted as saying that there was less than one in 100 chance of even a single baby surviving.

But the woman claims to be in good health. “All I want to do is be able to hug my babies and show them all my love. This is an absolute miracle, and we all feel blessed after struggling so hard to have children,’’ she told hospital workers in the town of Gafsa, about 250 miles south of the capital Tunis.

Her husband, named only as Marwan, who teaches at the same school, told the Assabah newspaper: “In the beginning, we thought that my wife would give birth to twins, but more foetuses were discovered. Our joy has increased with the growing number.”

Fertility doctors

Fertility doctors say it is unlikely that an IVF doctor would have agreed to implant the Tunisian woman with 12 embryos. Instead, the bumper pregnancy is likely to be the result of fertility drugs to stimulate the ovaries.

But though Ms Suleman successfully delivered her eight babies and doctors are promising the Tunisian woman the same, others have not been so lucky.

The earliest occurrence was in Mexico City in 1967; all the babies died. A 23-year-old Greek Cypriot who became pregnant with a then record 11 babies in 1996 had to abort nine to save the lives of two.