Dubai: A 39-year-old mother, who had four children, has now given birth to quadruplets at a Dubai private hospital.
The proud mum of eight Roaya Tawakol delivered the quadruplets - three girls and a boy -- at the Medcare Women and Children’s Hospital under the supervision of Dr Shiva Harikrishnan, Senior Consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologist, Dr. Issam Abdalbari, Lead Neonatal Consultant and Dr Marija Lukavac, Specialist Neonatologist.
The C-section delivery was performed 29 weeks into Rpaya’s pregnancy.
At the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) led by Dr Abdalbari, each baby was assigned a team of healthcare providers to ensure the babies were safe and healthy. The newborns - AlAnoud, Shamma, Kawthar and Hussain – ranged in weight from 0.9kg to 1kg at birth. They remain in the NICU to gain weight, improve breathing ability and learn to feed from a bottle.
Sharing her experience, Roaya said: “Knowing that I was pregnant with four babies was great news. I was very confident that I would be in safe hands, in fact, it is magical that I had all my eight babies delivered by one doctor, Dr Shiva. Now that they are born, I don’t know what other way to describe it but to say it is amazing and such a blessing,” she said, holding her four babies for the first time.
“I can only say thank you to the doctors and nurses at Medcare whose care was impressive and nothing short of support. Not to forget, thank you Dr Azzam Malak Ghasemi, Specialist Obstetrician and Gynecologist (Maternal Foetal Medicine) for the detailed antenatal foetal scans for all the four babies that took up to four hours.”
Quadruplets births are rare
After delivering the babies, Dr Harikrishnan enumerated the challenges of managing such a rare delivery. “The delivery could not have gone better. Quadruplet pregnancies are very rare - one in 700,000 pregnancies - and they come with a set of complications with more than a 25 per cent risk of spontaneous loss before birth. We took all necessary precautions to minimise this risk and the babies were able to reach 29 weeks. It was a challenging case because it was also the mother’s fifth C-section. We are very excited to have been part of welcoming these four beautiful and healthy babies safely into the world.”
Highligting the challenges that quadruplets can face in the NICU unit, Dr Abdalbari said: “Premature babies may have prolonged pauses in their breathing that will improve with time. That’s why it is very important to have a team of highly experienced professionals, with the right skillsets to deal with such premature and complicated cases. The four babies are doing well for what it’s expected for babies born at 29 weeks. They are in good hands.”
Equipped with 20-beds, the specialised tertiary care NICU at Medcare has also delivered a 22-week gestation baby, with the mother and child discharged in a stable condition after a somewhat challenging five- and-a-half months.
