Hyderabad:

A woman who gave birth to quadruplets was in shock due to her babies being premature and having low birth weight. She was brought to Hyderabad’s Niloufer Hospital, where she and her babies spent a month in the intensive care unit before they found a happy ending.

Reports say the treatment would have cost upwards of Rs 1 crore in any private hospital.

Amrutha, 24, rushed to the hospital on February 22 with complaints of premature labour pain in the seventh month of her pregnancy.

She was taken in for caesarean delivery on the same day. She gave birth to four babies – two boys and two girls.

All four of them being very premature and low birth weight required ventilator support immediately after birth, the hospital said. The babies were admitted to the ICU at Niloufer Hospital under the supervision of Dr N Ravi Kumar, superintendent, and L Swapna, professor and head of department of neonatology.

The babies were put on a mechanical ventilator for 10 days due to breathing problems. In the initial days, it was difficult for the mother to provide breast-feeding to all the babies.

With the support of a human milk bank at Niloufer Hospital, she was able to feed her babies with her own milk and some donor human milk.

As the days progressed, the babies’ condition improved and were shifted to normal wards from the ICU. They had to battle with several complications associated with prematurity like sepsis, jaundice, apnea and ROP.

One of the babies also required an eye surgery, which was facilitated by doctors from Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital.

After 35 days of hospital stay, all the four babies were discharged today, healthy.

Dr N Ravi Kumar appreciated the doctors of the neonatology department for their efforts. The mother and the four babies are healthy, with the babies receiving only breast milk.