UK-Born Quins Progressing Well
Doctors say that quintuplets born 14 weeks early to a 29 year old Russian woman in a British hospital are doing well.The music teacher gave birth to the five girls in the early hours of Saturday at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital. They ranged in weight from 1lb 13oz to 2lb 2oz after being delivered by Caesarean section by a team of 18 doctors and nurses. It is the first birth of quins in the UK for five years. The last set of quins were born in Belfast at the end of 2002 and have now just started school.
The mum, whose name is not being disclosed, was advised by doctors in her native Russia to have selective terminations. The drug-based fertility treatment she was undergoing, makes multiple births more likely, but the couple refused to have abortions on religious grounds. The risks to mother and babies in such multiple pregnancies are high, with the majority miscarrying or giving birth too early for survival.
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Her family contacted Oxford doctor Lawrence Impey, who specialises in caring for mothers with high-risk pregnancies.
He said: "I'm very pleased to be able to help this delightful family and that they asked us to look after them. Mother is recovering well and the babies are doing well." All five girls are now in intensive care after doctors and nurses worked in teams of five, each taking it in turn to deliver a baby.
Doctors said the prospects for the babies surviving was now good as the main danger had come immediately after birth. The hospital said the babies will be cared for in this country until they are strong and well enough to return to Russia with their parents. All the medical costs have been met by a group of Russian philanthropists.
Dr Lawrence Mascarenhas, consultant obstetrician at St Thomas's hospital in London, said the worry was first the babies' survival, and then long-term damage as a result of being born prematurely. A team from Queen Charlotte's Hospital in London is now looking after two of the girls as the care of pre-term babies is so
FACTS ABOUT QUINTUPLETS
 The first set of surviving quintuplets were the Dionne sisters born in Ontario, Canada, in 1934. They were taken from their parents and exhibited in front of paying customers for more than a decade
The first surviving quintuplets in the UK were born in 1969 to a couple from Essex. The mother had been given a fertility drug and a team of 26 was needed to deliver the girls
The last quintuplets to be born in the UK were delivered in a Belfast hospital. They were only the 12th set of natural quintuplets to be born worldwide since records began
November 2007
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