(Trinidad Express) The first sextuplets in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean were delivered yesterday at the Mt Hope Women’s Hospital.
They are premature and are currently on ventilator support.
The six babies—three boys and three girls whose weight ranged from one pound, nine ounces to three pounds—were delivered via Caesarian section.
All babies were taken out of their mother’s womb in three minutes—a feat that surprised even doctors.
Chairman of the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA), Dr Shehenaz Mohammed, and head of the hospital’s Obstetrics Unit, Dr Bharath Bassaw, as well as nursing heads and staff yesterday spoke about the historic births at a news conference at the Mt Hope hospital.
Bassaw was one of the two surgeons who delivered the babies along with a staff of 18 doctors and nurses—a team that was put in place to support the 42 staff members in the unit.
Bassaw said the babies were still “critical” and the mother was in a stable condition but will be monitored to ensure she was not bleeding excessively and in no danger.
The babies, he said, were “fragile” and gradually, if all goes well, they will be weaned off and be fed breast milk.
Bassaw said for now the babies will be given drips and antibiotics to ensure there are no infections. They will be kept warm and staff will monitor them for jaundice, he added.
“The smallest one will do the best, because of the decreased growth that baby is going to be very tough and it’s a female and the female babies do better than male babies,” he said.
He added that it was possible there were twins or triplets of the six but this will be verified later as the mother’s placenta was being examined.
The 28-year-old mother was due to deliver the babies on March 14, but Bassaw explained the surgery had to be done earlier because her condition deteriorated and she had problems breathing.
Mohammed, he said, held a three-hour meeting on Sunday where he had to justify calling for early surgery.
“I can tell you it has been a difficult and stressful journey. We got this patient when she was seven weeks, we took her just past 30 weeks,” said Bassaw.
He said it was a “fantastic team effort” and all staff delivered their 100 per cent best effort.
“I got up at three this morning and I was rehearsing every step of the way. I got to work very early, my heart was racing today because this is not the usual normal routine pregnancy. I am convinced 100 per cent that this team did the best possible,” he said.
Bassaw said the father of the six said his dream came true because he wanted six children and he got them “in one shot”.
Mohammed also expressed pride that the Mt Hope team came together to ensure the best care for the babies as well as all other babies who were delivered at the hospital.
The babies, she said, were transferred to the Neonatal Unit without incubation.
However things changed and “now all six require ventilator support, they are stable from the point of view of prematurity but they are going to be requiring all the necessary care of premature babies”.
“They are not full term babies, they are not going to be on room air, we have to take precautions with them. One of them being at risk of infection and that’s why nobody is allowed into the Neonatal Unit except the mother and father,” she added.
Mohammed said the babies will spend some time at the hospital and it was unlikely they will be discharged in two weeks.
The babies’ father, she said, saw his children but did not witness the surgery.
It was a busy day at the hospital as in addition to the sextuplets, three other Caesarian sections were performed.
Mohammed said Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan also sent his congratulations to the new parents.
She disclosed there were ten babies in the unit yesterday.
She said there were nine incubators in the unit, plus another three at hand at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex.
Mohammed said another 12 were on their way to the country from Sweden.
She added that the unit had 20 cots for babies.
“There’s going to be a full examination of the processes that we used for this good outcome, we are going to go forward so we can create a policy and protocol for best practice when there are high-risk patients,” she said.
The head nurses also shared their excitement and relief over the birth of the babies.
Head nurse of the operating theatre, Kathy Charles Cadogan, said she had not cooked a hot meal for her husband in three weeks as all her time was devoted to the hospital and best care for all babies born there.
Nursing administrator Claudette Udeka commended the nursing teams and staff involved in the delivery.
The day, she said, was an exciting one and she praised the hospital team for the successful delivery of the country’s first sextuplets.
