"The sextuplets and their mother are in good condition"
A Pakistani woman gave birth to six babies at a hospital in Rawalpindi.
It was reported that the rare incident saw 27-year-old Zeenat Waheed give birth to four boys and two girls in a one-hour period on April 19, 2024.
Zeenat was admitted to the hospital on April 18 after going into labour.
After undergoing an operation, the Pakistani woman gave birth to the babies.
Dr Farzana Zafar said the mother and her six children were healthy with no complications.
The infants are in good health and all of them weigh less than two pounds each.
She said: “The sextuplets and their mother are in good condition; the doctors have however put the babies in an incubator.”
Dr Zafar said Zeenat had developed complications after giving birth and her condition would normalise in the next few days.
She added: “It was not a normal delivery and in the delivery sequence, the baby girl was third.”
Staff at the hospital expressed their joy over the arrival of the sextuplets and ensured that the family would be provided with all the medical support and facilities during their stay.
The babies will continue to get medical care at the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit until cleared to go home.
The occurrence of a live birth involving such a high number of babies is very rare, with the birth of sextuplets estimated to happen in just one out of every 4.5 million pregnancies.
This rarity stems from the nature of multiple pregnancies, where a woman carries two or more fetuses simultaneously.
These pregnancies result from either the splitting of a fertilised egg before implantation in the uterus, as seen in identical twins, or from separate eggs being fertilised by different sperm, leading to fraternal twins.
Pregnancies involving three or more fetuses are exceedingly rare and are accompanied by a heightened risk of complications compared to single pregnancies.
This increased risk is due to factors such as premature birth, low birth weight and potential developmental issues.
Despite these challenges, the incidence of multiple births has risen in recent years due to the widespread use of fertility drugs and assisted reproductive technologies like in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
Fertility medications can enhance the likelihood of a multiple pregnancy by stimulating the ovaries to release multiple eggs during ovulation, increasing the chances of conceiving more than one baby.
Loading ...