Dubai: Young Emirati gives birth to quintuplets in 'extremely rare' case

A young Emirati mother managed to pull through a high-risk pregnancy and recently gave birth to quintuplets.

Her five bundles of joy — delivered minutes apart at Latifa Hospital in Dubai — were born premature at 29 weeks and with an average weight of only 1.2kg. But all is well for the young mother and her babies, who are all in good health, doctors confirmed.

“The newborns breathe without respiratory support, feed well, and are gaining weight under close supervision of the neonatologists and nurses of Latifa Hospital," said Dr Mahmoud El Halik, consultant neonatologist and head of the neonatology section at the hospital.

A quintuplet pregnancy is "extremely rare", said Dr Fadi Mirza, medical director and director of the Department of Obstetrics at Latifa Hospital.

"[There's only] one in 55 million cases in the world, and it requires an integrated and specialised medical team to manage such a case from the pregnancy to delivery and postnatal,” said Dr Mirza.

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Latifa Hospital handles an average of 4,000 births annually. It is one of the UAE's largest maternity and children’s hospitals and has the largest intensive care unit for newborns and premature infants in Dubai and the Northern Emirates.