Ask any parent and they’ll tell you: having kids is a wonderful experience in many ways…but it sure isn’t easy. Lots of parents have raised two, three, four, or even five kids. Just imagine what it would be like to raise 44 kids — and to do it alone.
Mariam Nabatanzi looks busy.
In any photo or video of Mariam, you’ll see her surrounded by her many children. This 39-year-old woman in Uganda has found herself in the position of being solely responsible for a huge family.
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How did it happen?
In a Reuters article , journalist Elias Biryabarema visited Mariam in her home village of Kasawo, Uganda. She’s doing the best she can. But life isn’t easy, and it never has been easy.
She was married at the age of 12.
Mariam got pregnant 15 times. That’s a lot by any measure, but these pregnancies yielded a huge brood of children. Her first pregnancy resulted in twins, followed by five more sets of twins .
Then she had triplets.
She gave birth to triplets on four separate occasions. Then, she gave birth to five sets of quadruplets. If you haven’t been doing the math, that’s 44 children in all.
Life has never been easy for her.
Mariam says her mother abandoned her family just days after she was born, leaving her father to care for six kids alone. Eventually, her dad remarried and she had a stepmother.
Things got worse.
She says that as a seven-year-old, her new stepmother poisoned her five siblings by mixing crushed glass into their food. All of them died. Mariam, who was staying with a relative, was spared.
She always wanted a big family.
While her childhood was almost unfathomably tragic, the events caused Mariam to wish for a large family. She started off wanting six kids, to somehow make whole the family she’d lost.
Uganda tends to have large families.
After a doctor told her that birth control pills might cause problems due to large ovaries, Mariam gave birth to a huge number of kids. Unfortunately, some kids died along the way — six in total.
She had help.
Until three years ago, she had her husband’s (limited) assistance. Then, he abruptly left, leaving her to deal with a massive burden alone. An already difficult life had been dealt another harsh blow.
She hates her husband for what he did.
“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,” she said.
Conditions are tough.
Mariam and her kids live in four small houses. The walls are made of cement blocks, while the roofs are corrugated iron. Most of the kids sleep on bunk beds, share mattresses or sleep on the floor.
The kids do what they can.
Her oldest child, 23-year-old Ivan Kibuka, said, “Mom is overwhelmed, the work is crushing her, we help where we can, like in cooking and washing, but she still carried the whole burden for the family. I feel for her.”
Chores are divided.
A large family has many needs, but also many hands to help. Mariam divides chores by putting together a schedule for her kids, saying, “On Saturday, we all work together.”
She wants her kids to be happy.
Mariam says that she puts her kids’ happiness over her own, saying, “I started taking on adult responsibilities at an early age. I have not had joy, I think, since I was born.”
It’s a difficult story.
It’s almost impossible to imagine going through everything Mariam has dealt with her in life. You can read the Reuters article here , and watch this video from a Kenyan media outlet.
