By Sola Ogundipe
LAGOS — A set of quadruplets has been successfully delivered at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, Idi Araba, Lagos. Information released by the institution’s management said the mother, Mrs Queen Itama, was delivered of the babies through Caesarean Section by a medical team on Wednesday evening.

The babies, three girls and a boy, weighed 1056grammes, 1156 gramme, 1006 grammes and 1006 gramme each and are said to be in fairly stable condition. They were born premature at the gestational age of six months and three weeks. The feat, according to hospital sources, is not unconnected with the large and fully functional neonatal unit system comprising 29 incubators, widely acknowleged as the largest in the country and backed by a qualified medical staff.

The elated mother who hails from the Ishan tribe of Edo State, said the delivery was her third pregnancy, having had two girls in the first two pregnancies.  A former private school teacher, Itama said she had to resign from her job because of the pregnancy. She was full of thanks and praises to God and the LUTH medical team for her safe delivery.

Multiple birth is not an uncommon occurence in the country, particularly in the southwest.

Vanguard gathered that quadruple birth is a type of multiple birth in which the mother gives birth to four offspring from the same pregnancy.

The occurrence and frequency, however, varies across human populations. Factors such as maternal age, socio-environmental factors, increase in the use of contraceptives, the race of human population, increase in the spontaneous abortion rate, and seasonal variations are among the factors that could influence multiple birth including twinning (two babies), triplets (three babies) and quadruplets (four babies). Information on quadruple rates in in general is limited.

Though there are no documented data for LUTH, A recent study at the Obafemi Awolowo Universuty teaching hospital (OAUTH) showed frequency of twin births of around 46.5 per 1000 deliveries and 46.2 per 1000 deliveries was recorded for Ilesa and Ile-Ife respectively. The frequency recorded for Ogbomoso and Ado-Ekiti was 38.5 and 22.1 per 1000 deliveries respectively.

The overall average frequency of 40.2 per 1000 deliveries for the four hospitals ranks among the highest recorded rates of twin births in the world. The maternal age group of 25-29 years had the highest occurrence of twin births, while the lowest was recorded in the 45-49 years age group.

The analysis reveals high incidence of twinning in the studied areas and supports previous assertion that the southwestern part of Nigeria has the highest multiple birth rate in the country, notably twinning.