Ayo Mogaji, the veteran Nollywood actress, has opened up about herself, revealing how she became a mother at the age of 40 years with just one fallopian tube.
Recounting her life experience on Friday during a podcast episode hosted by Nollywood actress, Abiola Adebayo, she said she had her baby six weeks after her 40th birthday despite having one fallopian tube.
The fallopian tubes are narrow, hollow structures located on either side of the uterus. They serve as pathways for eggs to travel from the ovaries to the uterus.
Mogaji said her fallopian tube was ruptured when she had her first pregnancy which was ectopic and had to be evacuated in order to save her life.
An ectopic pregnancy happens when a fertilized egg implants and develops outside the usual space within the uterus.
Typically, this occurs in a fallopian tube, where eggs normally travel from the ovaries to the uterus, resulting in what is known as a tubal pregnancy.
She disclosed that some of her colleagues who were with her in the hospital cried bitterly because the doctor said she might not make it.
She stated that the operation conducted to remove the pregnancy took seven to nine hours.
Mogaji recounted, “There was this lawyer who wanted to marry me because he had been in a marriage for 14 years and they never had a child. He took me to his mum and I was looking for a child that period. Our mothers were introduced and I got pregnant.
“Unfortunately, the pregnancy was ectopic. It stayed right inside the fallopian tube and LUTH was on strike at that time. So, by the time we realised what was happening, they took me to seven hospitals and the late Uncle Ede Aderinokun was the one who gave me a note to the hospital where they admitted me.
“They didn’t even want to admit me. The doctor said he wasn’t sure if I could survive till tomorrow and I said “Do you believe in God? Even if you do not believe in God, believe in me because I believe in God. We did not have an agreement that I was going to die like this.’ They did the operation and it took them seven to nine hours the following day.
“Fortunately or unfortunately, the ectopic pregnancy ruptured before they could do anything and it ruptured my appendix, so they had to remove one fallopian tube. I am living with one and I had my child through natural birth with that one I have left.”
Speaking about her love life, she recalled that she fell in love and got married but her partner was abusive for the 13 years of their marriage.
She revealed that her ex-husband physically abused her and she couldn’t stay at home with him without a third party.
The thespian, however, advised ladies not to endure abusive marriage.
She said, “When matrimony leads you to a place where you can’t have your own friends, the family can not come, you will start looking at them somehow, even knowing the kind of job you were in before you got married. The reaction at home, the abusive language, the physical abuse, the mental torture; when it gets too much, I will advise anybody to get out of that kind of marriage because otherwise, they may come and meet your candle.”
On whether she could reconcile with her ex-husband, she said, “There can’t be room. If I could tolerate that thing for 13 years thinking there could be a change, then there can never be change. He is not a bad person but when you are too jealous and have a complex, it is very hard. It can’t work. You can try to make your marriage work, yes you can try.”