28 year-old farmer, Jummai Musa, is a mother-of-seven. From being barren for three years after getting married to having seven children in the space of five years, she narrates her story to Daily Trust.
Read excerpt from her interview below;
Daily Trust: Did you plan to have so many children within the space of five years?
Jummai Musa: (Laughter) It was not that I planned to have seven children within that period or to have so many children in the first place. It so happened that I was married for three years and didn’t have a child. I didn’t even get pregnant. My husband and I are farmers and didn’t have money to do tests to confirm if there was anything wrong with either of us. All we had were our prayers, God and support of our families and friends. God answered us after three years and I had a baby girl. Two years after I had her, I was pregnant again and so excited about it. It was even more exciting to everyone who knew us when we discovered in my second trimester that they were twins. I danced, and my husband was so happy and especially happy when he was later told that one of the twins was a boy.
But beneath our joy, we were a little worried about how we would take care of them on our very low income. But God was kind and people helped and have been helping. Then three years after, I was pregnant again. I got worried because of our finances but had belief in God. When I went for scan, I was told I was expecting triplets. At this point, joy overwhelmed me as I began to wonder about God and how He does things.
DT: Was it a difficult pregnancy?
Musa: Yes, especially towards the end. I had morning sickness but not for long. Then as it progressed and the babies grew, I became more and more exhausted and had to stop a lot of activities. I went for check up. My neighbours were very helpful and would take me or help me get things I needed. But I was tired a lot, too much that sometimes I would wonder if I had the energy to push the baby. All this while I imagined how the triplets would look. I wasn’t very keen about their gender because I already male and female, though.
On May 27, which was Children’s Day, at about 2am I went into labour. Luckily, there is a midwife not very far from my house who someone went to call and let her know I was in labour. We couldn’t go to hospital because of the pain and we really didn’t have the means to do so at that time of the day. The babies started coming out. Each one took two hours after the previous one before it came out. For six hours they were coming out. I was thoroughly exhausted and had just enough strength to push out the third before I collapsed. After she came out, the midwife said, ‘wait it seems there is still another one inside.’ At that point I passed out. I was so exhausted and didn’t know what to do with myself.
By this time it was day time. I was immediately rushed to Gwarinpa Hospital where they admitted me and delivered the last baby four hours after the third. I was afraid.
