Infancy: Quadruplets

FROM BIRTH TO TODDLERHOOD:
Butaro Hospital in Rwanda continues to serve quadruplet sisters.

Quadruplet sisters at their home in northern Rwanda.

In July 2009, a crowd of curious and jubilant villagers gathered outside Butaro Hospital in northern Rwanda. News of a seeming miracle had drawn them to the facility—the birth of healthy identical quadruplet girls.

“The chances of a woman giving birth to quadruplets are in the region of one in 800,000; the odds of them sharing a single placenta run into tens of millions,” said Dr. Mickey Sexton, a PIH doctor who was working at Butaro that day.  

Their birth became a day of surprises, especially for their mother—she had come to the hospital to seek treatment for a slight cough. Minutes after arriving, and about eight months into her pregnancy, she went into labor. However, more surprises were to come. Her 20 week prenatal check-up had revealed two babies. While she was in labor, PIH's Dr. Juvenal Musavuli noticed that the mother’s abdomen was enormous—measuring 49 cm (more than 36 cm is generally considered abnormal), so decided to perform another ultrasound scan. He was shocked to find three babies. The first two were delivered without difficulty, but the third was born in the breach position—she was so small that he was able to ease her out by her feet. And then came another surprise—Dr. Musavuli discovered that there was still one more baby waiting to be born!

Knowing the babies would be very premature, Dr. Musavuli knew that they should ideally be delivered somewhere with a neonatal intensive care unit. However, there wasn’t time to transport their mother to Kigali, Rwanda’s capital city, before she gave birth. Luckily, all four babies were healthy enough to survive the trip to Kigali after being born.

Today, Butaro District Hospital boasts a modern neonatal special care nursery, as well as a full array of prenatal, post-natal, and emergency obstetric services to care for other babies born prematurely and for their mothers. Even in 2009, the very existence of Butaro Hospital likely saved the lives of the four girls and their mother—before PIH and its Rwandan sister organization Inshuti Mu Buzima (IMB) arrived in the Burera district in 2007, the district did not have a functional hospital. Women in labor would have to risk crossing Lake Burera by boat in order to reach the nearest medical facility.

The quadruplets and their mother eventually returned to Butaro hospital, where they were carefully monitored by doctors, nurses and nutritionists until they were strong enough to go home. However, PIH/IMB made sure that their services wouldn’t end with their discharge, said Léonce Byimana, a program coordinator for PIH/IMB.

Ministry of Health and IMB/PIH worked together provide assistance to the parents, who would otherwise not have been able to support their family, which included five children in addition to the four babies. A nutrition technician and social worker have kept in close touch with the family to follow up with any nutritional and social issues faced by the family. The family was also provided with a monthly package of milk and food supplements, as well as a dairy cow. In addition, PIH has helped build the family a bigger house with four rooms, a kitchen, and bathroom—they had previously been crammed into a small one-room hut.

Today the quadruplets are happy, healthy toddlers, doted upon by their parents and five older siblings.

Learn more about PIH's work in Rwanda.