Multiple Births inundate NRH
Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Friday August 17, 2018 13:33
The triplets and quadruplets were delivered on August 9 and 12 respectively by two different mothers. A joyful Oakantse Monkenti, 38, of Seleka village in Tswapong, contributed the triplets while Pego Race, 34, from Tonota village gave birth to quadruplets to bring the number of screams to seven on those separate but very close dates. Monkenti and Race - who are not first time mothers - already have four and six children respectively. Monkenti gave birth naturally while Race had to go through caesarean section (c-section) procedure. Coincidently, the new bundles of joy are all boys.
The Mmegi team found the mew moms unable to come to terms with their feelings, which ambulated between euphoria and angst when it paid the mothers a visit at the hospital on Wednesday afternoon.
Narrating how she felt after she gave birth to three children, the unemployed Monkenti, who only went up to Form Three in her education, stated that she was happy about her new arrivals. She told the Mmegi crew that it was not the first time she gave birth to more than one child since she already has twins. “My first child is aged 16 and is attending junior school. My second born is aged 13 and is followed by the twins - a boy and girl - who were born in 2010,” Monkenti, who apparently battled mixed feelings of happiness and despondency, disclosed.
Monkenti admitted the difficulty of raising a family of many children especially when one was unemployed. But said she found solace in her own mother who is very supportive of her.
“I used to work under the Ipelegeng programme, but now I survive by doing piece jobs for people in Seleka,” Monkenti said. Asked if the father of her children is supporting her, Monkenti responded, “All my children were fathered by one person. Although he is not working, he is helping me very much to raise the children. He is also the father of my triplets”.
Monkenti is mulling over the possibility of enrolling under the government’s destitute programme, which provides underprivileged people with a monthly food basket.
The programme also caters for both the beneficiary and his/her children who are 18 years and below, or is still in school Monkenti said she would appreciate any kind of assistance, monetary and non-monetary, from the public that will ease her difficulties of taking care of her brood. Taking up with her own story, Race said she was just equally over the moon about her new God’s shower of gifts.
She was also very much surprised because before she gave birth, she did a scan and doctors told her that she was carrying three babies.
“I was surprised to give birth to four kids as opposed to the three I was expecting. There is nothing I can do but to accept my children. It was God’s wish that I will give birth to four kids,” Race said. She stated that she ekes out a living through harvesting Mophane worms (Phane) and thatching grass for sale.
Just like Monkenti, Race admitted that her offspring would complicate her life, which is already difficult. “The father of my children is also not working, but he is helping me to support our children. He is even staying with some of our children. “My family, especially my elder sister and younger brother, are helping me to take care of the kids,” Race said, with a visible twinge of pain on her face, evidently as she thought about how she was going to cope.
Fortunately for Race and unlike Monkenti, the government is taking care of her big family through the destitute programme.
Race also pleaded with people who have the means to help her with everything she can use to support her large brood.
The spokesperson of NRH Keekae Majeremane was also very happy about the births.
Although, Majeremane could not readily give figures of how frequent women give birth to triplets and quadruplets at NRH, he said according to the information he had gathered from employees who worked at NRH for many years, the last time the hospital welcomed quadruplets was more than 10 years back.
“…The births are a special occasion for all the teams working here and it is a time of great joy to their parents as well,” he said adding that the children are all in good health.
According to a South African publication, CapetownETC, quadruplet pregnancies are often more challenging than others.
Most multiple births that occur worldwide, the publication says, are made up of 90% twins with the remaining 10% being shared by triplets, quadruplets and others. A normal vaginal birth is not advisable when delivering quadruplets. There are an estimated 3,500 sets of quadruplets worldwide and it is also estimated that the parents of quadruplets will change roughly 30,000 diapers before their children are successfully trained to use the toilet.
The odds of giving birth to quadruplets spontaneously and naturally are roughly one in 571,787, says the publication.