Identical quadruplets born in Chennai

Chennai: A twenty-six-year-old woman has delivered identical quadruplets, a rarity that occurs once in forty lakh cases globally.

Shruthi Vivekanandan, a software professional based in Chennai, delivered the four girls - Aditi, Aakriti, Akshathi, Aapthi - at the Apollo Hospital on April 25, ten weeks prior to her full term, without any medical complications, doctors said.

The babies weighed 825 to 980 grams at birth. Dr Meena Thiagarajan, an expert in neonatal care, said cases like Shruthi's, which were called "naturally conceived monochrorionic quadriamniotic quadruplets", occurred once in 6-7 lakh births.

However, she went on to explain that Shruthi's case was a step further - she had identical or monozygous quadruplets, wherein all four umbilical chords shared the same placental vessels, the babies were uni-sexual and had the same blood group.

"In this medical condition, the mother carries the risk of foetal loss of all four babies at the same time, due to various factors including chord complications and pre-term labour," Dr Siyamala, Director, Medical Services, said.

On the other hand, the babies themselves ran the risk of being affected with diabetes, anaemia, blood pressure, respiratory distress syndrome, infection and jaundice.

However, in spite of being born in 29 weeks and three days, the babies were healthy now and were gaining weight rapidly, Dr Siyamala added.