The city of Poznań in western Poland is celebrating the birth of four girls and a boy: Anastasia, Klara, Laura, Victoria, and Maximilian.
The birth took place on Sunday evening during a medical procedure that involved 30 medics and saw the mother undergo a cesarean delivery. The mother of the quintuplets had required hospital care for the last five weeks of her pregnancy, as the children were deemed to be at risk.
It is the third time since the turn of the century that the Poznan hospital has seen the arrival of quintuplets. Such births are rare events, statistically occurring in one in 50 million live births.
According to the doctors, the 27-year-old first-time mother is recovering well and remained conscious during the cesarean operation.
The birth of the children represented a moving occasion for the hospital staff and the family, with tears being shed by those present as the five children came into the world. Although the odds of having a birth with multiple children go up for women undergoing fertility treatment, the woman had conceived the children naturally even though she had been treated for infertility in the past.
The mother of the quintuplets has not been vaccinated against COVID-19 as of yet, but she now qualifies for early inoculation as the quintuplets were born early, in the 29th week of pregnancy.
The quintuplets, who all have weaker respiratory systems, all require medical support for their breathing. They will require hospital treatment for some weeks and months ahead. Maximilian weighs almost 1.2 kilograms, the most of the five. Victoria recorded the lowest weight of nearly 0.7 kilograms.
