SOMETHING SPECIAL: MOTHER DELIVERS FIRST SET OF QUADRUPLETS AT 29 WEEKS AT MEDCARE WOMEN & CHILDREN HOSPITAL
- Quadruplet’s pregnancies are very rare, 1 in 700,000 pregnancies
- Team of highly skilled professionals is required to deal with such premature and complicated cases
Dubai, February 2022: Doctors at reputable, Medcare Women & Children Hospital, have delivered the medical facility’s first set of quadruplets.
The 39-year-old Emirati mother, Roaya Tawakol, giving birth to four healthy babies, was under the care of Dr. Shiva Harikrishnan, Senior Consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologist, Dr. Issam Abdalbari, Lead Neonatal Consultant and Dr. Marija Lukavac, Specialist Neonatologist.
“Knowing that I was pregnant with four babies was great news, and I was rooted to Dr. Shiva.
I was very confident that I will 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,” says Roaya about seeing all 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.”
The C-section delivery was performed 29 weeks into the pregnancy by a medical team led by Dr Harikrishnan of doctors, nurses, and healthcare staff.
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, 3 girls and 1 boy – (AlAnoud, Shamma, Kawthar, Hussain) – ranged in weight from 0.9 kg to 1 kg at birth. They remain in the NICU to gain weight, improve breathing ability, and learn to feed from a bottle.
After delivering the babies, Dr. Shiva Harikrishnan commented that “The delivery could not have gone better.
Quadruplet’s pregnancies are very rare, 1 in 700,000 pregnancies, and they come with a set of complications with more than a 25 percent risk of spontaneous loss before birth.
We took all necessary precautions to minimize this risk and the babies were able to reach 29 weeks.
It was a challenging case, because it was also the mother’s fifth caesarean section.
We are very excited to have been part of welcoming these four beautiful and healthy babies safely into the world.”
At the NICU unit at Medcare Women & Children Hospital, Dr. Issam Abdalbari said that “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 experience 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.”
Medcare Women & Children Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit is a world-class, 20-bed specialized tertiary care unit that provides an extremely high level of medical care with innovative equipment and highly experienced staff.
Its expertise lies in dealing with various cases in extreme preterm babies, high-risk pregnancies, and babies born from 22 weeks gestation and above.
In a previous case, experienced doctors and nurses in the NICU 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.
As the preferred healthcare provider for maternity services, high-risk pregnancies and neonatal care, pediatrics, internal medicine and other specialties, Medcare Women & Children Hospital is operated by top-class medical experts and an infrastructure to manage the rarest pregnancy complications and cases.
The hospital provides antenatal packages to ensure a smooth pregnancy, as well as the Blossom Maternity Programme, that brings a range of thoughtfully and carefully designed services that will put patients’ minds at ease knowing they are in care of professionals.