A Tunisian woman, in her thirties, has been told by doctors that she is carrying 12 babies.
According to a report by The Daily News of South Africa, the unnamed Tunisian woman is expecting six boys and six girls. Medical experts, across the world, have described the woman as a record breaker.
The South African newspaper reported that the woman went for fertility treatment after having two miscarriages in two years.
The report said it was unclear how many weeks she had been carrying the pregnancy, but added that ultrasound scans could work out a baby‘s sex only after about 16 weeks.
The newspaper quoted the woman as saying, ”All I want to do is be able to hug my babies and show them all my love.”
She told hospital workers in the town of Gafsa, about 400 kilometres south of the capital, Tunis that pregnancy would change her life positively.
Her husband, named only as Marwan, said, ”In the beginning, we thought that my wife would give birth to twins, but more foetuses were discovered. Our joy was increased with the growing number. The medical team told us that my wife would give birth naturally.”
A woman had in January given birth to eight children in Carlifonia in the United States. The single mother of six defied doctors‘ predictions when she gave birth to eight healthy babies.
At the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Ogun State, a woman, Ajoke Bello, was delivered of six children in February this year. The woman died a day after the delivery, while only three of the babies survived.
Reacting to the Tunisian woman‘s pregnancy, the Medical Director of St. Ives Hospital, Ikeja Lagos, Dr. Tunde Okewale and a consultant gynaecologist, Dr. Femi Oloyede, said that it was fraught with dangers.
Okewale said, ”Such a pregancy can only be possible with assisted reproduction. Many foetuses must have developed. In assisted reproduction, it is unethical for any doctor to permit such multiple pregnancies.”
According to him, the woman can give birth to the babies prematurely and the pregnancy will be stressful to the mother. To ensure the survival of the babies, he said that there must be a well-equipped intensive care unit.
Also, Oloyode stated that such pregnancy could not be achieved through natural conception. ”It is fraught with many problems. There will be complications for the mother and the babies,” he said.
In Britain, fertility experts also said that although it was possible to conceive 12 babies, such a pregnancy was fraught with risk.
A fellow of Britain‘s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Peter Bowen-Simpkins, said, ”It is certainly possible to carry 12 babies, but not for long. The problem is the capacity of the uterus. This woman is going to be enormous by 20 weeks. And when the uterus goes into labour, there‘s nothing you can do about it.
”The youngest that babies have survived is at 22 to 23 weeks. They need intensive nursing and (most) have permanent neurological damage. You‘d need a very good intensive paediatric unit to cope with this.”
“We can‘t do it in (Britain), we don‘t have a unit with 12 intensive care cots.
”I don‘t like to dampen her enthusiasm, but the chances are she will deliver at 20 weeks. I wouldn‘t even give her a one in 100 chance of even one surviving. It‘s frightening.”
Meanwhile, security has been tightened around the woman while a lawyer has been hired to deal with the media.
The Echourouk newspaper in Tunisia reported that the woman, identified only by her initials of A.F, “is doing well and so are her future babies.”
According to her husband, “She is very happy and is anxiously waiting to see all 12 bouncing healthy babies in her hands.”
Health officials and social workers in Tunisia have already announced their intention to get involved in the case, the Essabah daily said.
