Historic birth - Doctors happy to deliver newborns

Doctors at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital in Kingston are calling the quadruple Clarke babies a historic birth. "It's the first at Jubilee that I'm aware of, certainly since the last 30 years, and it's the first as I know it, that has been without fertility enhancing options [in Jamaica]," senior medical officer at Jubilee, Dr Orville Morgan, told THE STAR.

He explained that high number multiple births are usually the result of in vitro fertilisation and other fertility techniques.

"Our quadruplets had no such history, so this makes it a rarer event because it's not something that happens naturally. I was just checking on the odds, and even in the UK, I believe, the odds of having quadruplets is one in 143,000, and that's with fertility drugs. Without fertility drugs, the odds of that happening is at least a million to one," he said.

Many risks

Obstetrician and gynaecologists, Dr Leroy Campbell and Dr Clayon Kelly, who performed the Caesarean section surgery told THE STAR that despite the many risks associated with a multiple-birth delivery, the procedure went smoothly.

"We are happy because there are a number of risks, especially with the uterus being stretched. Sometimes it doesn't contract very well which is important to stop bleeding after surgery. We were quite fortunate because she was very resilient, and we didn't have any of those complication," Campbell said.

They said the procedure took roughly 30 minutes, around the same time a single birth C-section takes.