Residents of Yilo and Lower Manya Krobo Municipalities in the Eastern Region Wednesday morning woke up to the news of the rare phenomenon of the delivery of five babies by a 37-year-old woman.
The births at the St. Thomas De Pores Hospital at Agomanya have been the talk of town all day with some curious residents trooping to the facility in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the mother and babies.
The babies, all female, were delivered at 2:02 am after the mother checked into the facility at around 6pm Tuesday evening.
Tettey Hellen who lived together with her husband at Tarkwa in the Western region, both farmers, arrived from Tarkwa Tuesday evening to live with her family till her delivery date is due only to be faced with the unexpected delivery.
The babies described as ‘pre-term’ who were only 28 weeks old at the times of delivery, were delivered through caesarian section (CS) by Dr. Mariam Theodora Bansah, Clinical Coordinator of the Hospital.
The births took place "without any complications", according to doctors at the facility.
It’s not clear how many quintuplets have been birthed in the country but the babies who were conceived naturally without IVF, have an appreciable chance of growing up healthy, doctor Dennis Dela Mensah at the neonatal section of the hospital told GhanaWeb shortly after examining the neonates.
The mother, Hellen Tettey, expressed her joy at the development. Asked how she felt about her new children, she said, "They are beautiful but they look quite alike, I can't differentiate between for now.”
To help the mother differentiate between the babies, doctors have numbered them in order of delivery for easy identification.
The proud mother who already had a set of twins (both girls) from five children including three boys and two girls from a previous marriage, says she’s happy to be a mother again and of five new babies.
According to the mother, a scan she took from a medical facility where she accessed pre-natal care detected only three babies in her womb, adding that she least expected five. She answered, “No [I wasn’t expecting five,” adding that the message was first difficult for her to accept.
Hellen Tettey who said she’s done with childbirth, added that taking care of ten children would be a difficult task for her to bear alone. “It is very, very difficult, I don’t get it easy,” she said as she pleaded with the general public for some assistance to enable her cater for her children. “I want them to come and help me because they’re plenty because I alone cannot take good care of them,” she appealed.
The babies are currently being kept in an incubator at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the St. Martin’s Hospital while the mother recuperates at the pre-natal ward of the facility.
Dr. Mariam Theodora Bansah, in an interview with GhanaWeb said she was not expecting to deliver the pregnant woman of five babies after she came in bleeding. “I was informed that a lady had come with a big abdomen and that they were perceiving two foetal heartbeats and she was also in labour…so we had to perform an emergency caesarian section and through our findings, we thought we were delivering three neonates not knowing, we had other visitors involved so we delivered five,” said the doctor.
According to her, the weight of the newly birthed ranged between 0.7kg to 0.9kg with mother and neonates all doing well.
The overwhelmed doctor while recounting her new experience from the previous night described it as “awesome.” She said, “I always deliver twin gestations so this is my first time of delivering quintuplets and it’s an awesome experience.”
The facility, she added will keep and monitor the neonates for some time until they gain some weight.
Dr. Dennis Dela Mensah who is Medical Officer in Charge of Pediatrics at the facility said though the newly born babies were doing well, they were all on oxygen, adding that “they’re breathing well and their saturations are okay.”
Asked about how common or rare the delivery of quintuplets are, the medical officer responded: “it’s very rare to have one single mother delivering five babies at a go.”
Hellen’s mother, madam Gladys Annorbaah who expressed her surprise at the development said the family though surprised with the turn of events was nevertheless awaiting the arrival of their daughter home to celebrate her and the babies. “We are all happy that today Wednesday is a special day for us…from here we’re going to celebrate,” the granny expressed.
Miss Zeena Abou Jaoude, Founder of Ghana Twins Foundation, a non-governmental organization (NGO) when contacted expressed her joy at the latest development.
She noted: “I’m so happy, I’m excited about it because it’s something that’s not really common and to have one person delivering babies, it’s so unique, you know multiple births is an intriguing part of life, it’s very intriguing in its own way.”
The mother and babies at the time of filing this report were being processed for transfer to the Korle bu teaching hospital for further medical attention.
