After giving birth to quintuplets, housewife declares… ‘I’ll not have any more babies’
In two years, she has borne six children but apparently not counting anymore in the nine year-old marriage. “For now, I am done. I am hanging my boots,” she told Weekly Trust on her bed in the Labour Unit of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba, Lagos. Also, in just two years of […]
In two years, she has borne six children but apparently not counting anymore in the nine year-old marriage. “For now, I am done. I am hanging my boots,” she told Weekly Trust on her bed in the Labour Unit of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba, Lagos. Also, in just two years of child-bearing experience, she’s had more children than most of her peers who have been married for as long as she has.
Olayemi, who has commenced breast-feeding the babies, said: “I was actually expecting four but I got five. It was a surprised package and to God be the glory. The surgery lasted for about 80 minutes and it was successful. They are very beautiful children.” On multiple births running in her genes, she said: “No, we don’t have that history.”
On her family, she said: “My husband is a legal practitioner and I’m a business woman. I sell building materials but I studied Mass Communication. Our families have been excited and happy. They never believed at first but when they saw the news, all that changed.”
Mr. Wale Shofunlayo had also told Weekly Trust earlier that before the babies came, the couple had prepared for quadruplets as the doctors’ investigation including comprehensive scan showed. But after my wife was delivered of the fourth baby, the leader of the medical team discovered that there was still something in the womb and further investigation showed the fifth baby. “If the medical team had no experience, they probably would have sealed up the opening without further probe,” he said.
The matron who led the team of nurses to successfully manage these children couldn’t narrate her experience because administrative bureaucracy wouldn’t permit. All she could say was that her team has been working double shifts to give adequate attention to the children and the team has been “fantastic”.
According to the Public Relations Officer of LUTH, Mrs. Hope Nwalolo, the birth of the babies was not the first case of multiple births recorded by the hospital. According to her, the delivery took less than 30 minutes as there were experienced medical professionals on ground.
Experts say a combination of factors, including the widespread use of assisted reproductive techniques and advancing maternal age at conception is associated with the phenomenon.