A South African mother who allegedly gave birth to ten children at once has been admitted to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.
According to South Africa's Eyewitness News, Gosiame Thamara Sithole was taken to Tembisa Hospital's psychiatric unit last week and checked by a medical team.
“The medical evaluation has shown that there was no pregnancy. It also shows that there are no physical scars to indicate a recent C-section,” a source told the outlet.
Sithole claimed she is "now being held against her will" at the hospital, her attorney, Refiloe Mokoena, said.
“She declined that she should be taken to the Tembisa Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation because she felt strongly that she is of sound mind,” Mokoena told South African site IOL.
The medical visit was the latest twist in the bizarre affair, which has seen even the alleged babies' father, Teboga Tsotetsi, casting doubt on the children's existence.
Teboho told Pretoria News his wife gave birth to seven boys and three girls.
Ms. Sithole, 37, is the mother of twins who are now six years old.
She is claimed to be in good health after giving birth in Pretoria on Monday evening at 29 weeks into her pregnancy.
Ms. Sithole told Pretoria News a month ago that her pregnancy had been "tough at the beginning" and that she had prayed for a healthy birth. She spent many restless nights wondering about what was to come.
"How would they fit in the womb? Would they survive?" she asked herself but was reassured by doctors that her womb was expanding.
Ms. Sithole was experiencing leg problems while carrying eight fetuses, and physicians discovered that two of the eight "were in the wrong tube."
"That was sorted and I have been okay since then. I can't wait for my children," she told the newspaper at the time.
Her husband also said he was over the moon, and felt like "one of God's chosen children. It's a miracle which I appreciate."
According to the publication, the babies — seven boys and three girls — have not made a public appearance or been photographed despite being born preterm.
The South African government has stated that it is still investigating the claim.
As a result, South Africans have been debating on social media whether the "Tembisa 10" tale is accurate.
Teboho told the newspaper that his wife gave birth in a hospital in Pretoria. He claimed the parents were taken aback because physicians had only discovered eight kids in prenatal exams.
If the report is accurate, the couple already has 6-year-old twins, bringing the total number of children to an even dozen.
The verification of what would be a world record is anxiously awaited by South Africans. The couple's relatives and neighbors have insisted that the report is accurate.
"For her to receive 10 blessings at one given time, we thank God for that," Wilson Machaya, a neighbor of the family in Tembisa, told The Associated Press (via Voice of America). "And because we are neighbors we will have to assist in any way possible."
In 2009, a woman in the United States set the Guinness World Record for the most infants delivered at a single birth who survived.
Halima Cissé, a 25-year-old Mali woman, gave birth to nine babies last month, all of whom are reportedly doing well in a Moroccan clinic.
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