Some 22,000 babies are born each year at Shaare Zedek, believed to be the most for a single hospital in the world.
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICHUpdated: APRIL 6, 2017 01:04Cribs for newborn babies are seen through an window at a nursery in a hospital in Jerusalem, September 10, 2015.(photo credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)
A woman has given birth to a rare naturally conceived set of healthy quadruplets at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.The birth, announced on Wednesday, took place over Purim last month.The parents had left Israel and moved to the husband’s native Mexico but for two years were unable to achieve a pregnancy.But somehow, they conceived without medical intervention two boys and two girls, each weighing a substantial 1.5 kilos.The babies were delivered by cesarean section in the modern- Orthodox mother’s 33rd week of pregnancy.“The birth of spontaneously conceived quadruplets is very rare in the medical literature,” said obstetrics and gynecology department chairman Prof. Arnon Samueloff, who performed the C-section. “It is uncommon even when using in-vitro fertilization.”The mother said that when she was told in Mexico after undergoing an ultrasound scan that she had quadruplets after being unable to conceive at all, she was in shock. “I felt that we must return to Israel. I am so glad that we returned and that our children were born here,” she said.But multiple births are not rare in the family. The mother’s mother had triplets.“Of course, we will have to buy a car with seven seats,” the father said. “So far, the babies will share two baby beds. Our family and friends are helping us at home, especially at night.”Some 22,000 babies are born each year at Shaare Zedek, believed to be the most for a single hospital in the world.