Proud parents: The Russian couple with one of their five daughters delivered at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital
Posted on 11/14/2007 11:36:21 PM PST by Stoat
A Russian woman has given birth to quintuplets in Britain after defying medical advice in her homeland.
The 29-year-old music teacher, who has strong religious beliefs, travelled to England to give all five of her daughters a chance of life.
Last night she and her husband, an academic, were said to be 'delighted' with their new family.
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Proud parents: The Russian couple with one of their five daughters delivered at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital
Live births of such a large number of babies are extremely rare - the odds of having naturally-conceived quintuplets are 65million to one - and the risks to the mother are high.
In the majority of cases, they either miscarry or the babies are born too prematurely to survive. In Russia, the couple had been urged by doctors to abort some of the foetuses.
But this was not an option they were prepared to take and - backed by financial support from Russian benefactors - turned to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.
There, five teams of a total of 18 doctors and nurses were on duty when the girls were delivered by caesarean section in the early hours of Saturday.
They were born 14 weeks premature. But the infants, who range in weight from 1lb 13oz to 2lb 2oz, are said to be 'doing well'.
Two of the girls are being cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit in Oxford while their three sisters have been transferred to a similar unit at the Queen Charlotte's Hospital in London.
The quins have been split up because of the number of specialist beds and nurses needed to care for them. The mother, who does not wish to be identified, is also said to be recovering well.
Staff at John Radcliffe Hospital are said to be so 'delighted to be part of something so unusual' that they have volunteered to work extra shifts to care for the Russian babies, who have all been named.
The bill for the family's medical care, which is expected to run into hundreds of thousands of pounds, is being met by a group of Russian philanthropists who supported the mother's decision to go abroad for care.
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Gimme five: Mother tends to one of her newborn quintuplets
She and her husband conceived the quintuplets after taking fertility drugs.
When Russian doctors discovered the high number of foetuses developing in her womb, they urged her to undergo 'selective terminations' - where one or two foetuses are aborted - in order to give the remaining babies a better chance of survival.
A spokesman at the John Radcliffe Hospital said last night: "They didn't want selective terminations and we felt able to help her."
Lawrence Impey, the consultant in foetal medicine in charge of the delivery, said last night: "Although we would give the mother-to-be similar facts and figures about selective terminations and the risks involved in carrying on with all five foetuses, we would expect her to make the choice.
"It is a terribly difficult choice. I don't know if she was given the same options in Russia."
The 43-year-old consultant said the woman was at 'very high risk' of going into early labour and losing her babies during the pregnancy because she had already lost one baby, born prematurely, during an earlier pregnancy.
Mr Impey did not bring the woman into hospital until three days before the birth and treated her with a combination of drugs and a surgical procedure to try to delay labour for as long as possible.
He said: "We have a variety of types of medical care to get her as far as we could in her pregnancy. There are better facilities here than she could have had in Russia."
He added: "We were very careful to check in advance that the birth would not place a burden on the NHS. She is lucky enough to have a friend who has paid for all the neonatal care."
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The babies are already out of the highest level of intensive care and are expected to be ready to leave hospital within ten weeks. The parents, who are understood to come from a large city in Russia, have visited their daughters in Queen Charlotte's, an hour from Oxford.
Mr Impey added: "Mother is recovering well and the babies are doing well. The babies can be handled by their mother and father but they are still wired up to machines. I'm very pleased to be able to help this delightful family."
Unregulated fertility treatment meant a spate of multiple births in the 1990s.
In the U.S., there were 36 sets of quintuplets born in the space of three years but in the UK, changes to IVF guidance have significantly reduced the number of births of three or more babies in recent years.
The number of triplets has halved in the last eight years due to tighter regulation of IVF treatment and the use of drugs to stimulate the production of eggs.
The pregnant mother travelled to Britain some weeks ago and has been living near the hospital while she and the doctors prepared for the birth. It is only the second time quintuplets have been delivered at the John Radcliffe.
The Russian babies will be cared for in this country until they are strong enough to return to Russia with their parents.
A spokesman for Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS trust said: "Doctors in Russia had apparently urged her to have selective terminations. She declined on personal religious grounds and sought the opinion of experts in Oxford.
"The cost of the care is being met by philanthropists in Russia. It will be a substantial amount, because of the size of the team needed for the delivery and the length of time the babies will stay in hospital."
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The first surviving quintuplets on record were the Dionne sisters, born in Ontario in 1934, and put on public display in a specially built theme park called Quintland.
The five girls, Annette, Cecile, Yvonne, Marie and Emilie, were removed from their parents by the state and became a tourist attraction on a par with Niagara Falls.
The Hanson quins - also five girls - were the first to survive in Britain for a century when they were born in 1969.
More recently, the Ward babies - four boys and a girl - from Ashford, Kent, were born in 1980 and Lesley Needham gave birth to three girls and two boys in Manchester in 1987.
There were no quintuplets born in the British Isles between 1993 and 2001, when three boys and two girls were born to Kevin and Veronica Cassidy in Dublin.
In 2003, the Loughran quins (see panel above) from County Tyrone were delivered.
They were naturally conceived, but the other recent quins in the UK were the product of fertility treatment.
There ARE miracles!
Ping! :-)
“Live births of such a large number of babies are extremely rare - the odds of having naturally-conceived quintuplets are 65million to one - and the risks to the mother are high.”
Would I be alone in thinking those are relevant considerations?
If the you think the occurrance of an event with 65 million to 1 odds is a miracle, you’d have to think God has an unhealthy interest in games of chance.
You’d also have to think miracles can be manufactured on demand by anyone with the patience to string together 65 million independent events.
Logans! Prayer! Warriors!!!!!!!
Loads of prayers for these five little babies. And the mom and dad as well. :-)
BTTT
Well Putin wanted Russians to have more babies...an lo it was done!
I think the odds were greatly altered by them taking fertility drugs, which are well known to increase the chances of multiple births.
No fertility drugs were involved in this case..
Wrong.
She and her husband conceived the quintuplets after taking fertility drugs.
God is great and good and worthy of all praise! What a wonderful story...prayers said for this new family.
From the article: “She and her husband conceived the quintuplets after taking fertility drugs.”
Prayers sent
Get rest while you can.
From the article, non-citizens of the UK have to pay for medical services, unlike here in the US.
Prayers for the little ones and the parents.
In this specific case, it seems that the medical costs have been covered already:
Russian gives birth to quintuplets, defying doctors - Times Online
All the medical costs have been met by a group of Russian philanthropists. Chief executive of Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trevor Campbell Davis said: “We are pleased to be able to give the care and support the family needed.
Yes indeedy.
I thought the article said there were!
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