© Madalyn Cox via Unsplash
Identical quadruplets were born at a hospital in Veldhoven, which is extremely rare: worldwide, this occurs in only about 1 in 11 million pregnancies.
The identical quadruplets were born at the Máxima Medical Center and are currently still in the hospital; they were born at 29 weeks of gestation.
The operating room had to be modified for the delivery, as it is normally equipped to handle a maximum of three babies. “During this cesarean section, a large team was standing by at the operating table: gynecologists, the anesthesia team, and the surgical assistants,” gynecologist Bloeme van der Knoop told the NOS. “And each baby had its own team consisting of a doctor and a nurse.”
The parents of the quadruplets are from The Gambia and have been living in the Netherlands for a year. Their daughter, born in Italy, suddenly gained four little brothers: Adam, Amir, Hassan, and Hussein. The quadruplets were conceived naturally, and there is a history of multiple births in the family: so far, only twins—and now quadruplets as well.
The quadruplets were born back in May, but the hospital only announced the news now. “That’s because of the precarious situation—the children were, of course, born prematurely. We wanted to wait and see how the boys would do before we made the news public,” a hospital spokesperson told NU.nl.
Illustration picture: © Madalyn Cox via Unsplash