When 34 years old Fashion Designer, Tawakalitu Adeyinka, became pregnant in September, 2020, little did she know that she is going to write her name in the record book of her husband’s family.
According to her, there was nothing unusual in the pregnancy. “It was not my first experience as I have two boys before although there has been an interval of eight years between my pregnancy and now. I felt similar symptoms like the first two pregnancies and have not new signs. I felt even stronger and healthier,” she narrated to The Gazelle News.com when this medium visited her in husband’s elder brother’s house in Egbeda area of Lagos.
Nothing gave the Adeyinkas any inkling that one, two, three and four babies would be delivered from the pregnancy.
“We started noticing the unusual expansion of the tummy around December and January. We thought it’s going to be twins which is understandable because I’m from a family of twins,” Jimoh Adeyinka, father of the newly born quadrupulets told our correspondent.
The story changed in February, 2021 when the couple went for a scan to determine the actual number of babies in the womb.
“The result of the scan showed I was carrying four babies in my womb,” Tawakalitu told The Gazelle News.com.
“At first, we thought there might have been a mistake. Yes, I have history of people having twins in my family but nobody has never delivered triplets not to talk of quadrupulets. So we have to do the scan not once but thrice and loo and behold, the same result, four babies we are expecting at a go,” Jimoh told our correspondent.
What was their initial reactions?
“I was somehow scared: one, two, three, four babies at a go… Hmmmm, it was somehow scary but I have believe in Almighty Allah that I’ll deliver safely. I also have implicit confidence in the medical team and I was following all the instructions given to me religiously,” Tawakalitu said.
For Jimoh, he took it as a man though the challenge on him was enormous. “I took it as a man though I know we are faced with huge responsibilities,” he said.
After it was discovered that she was going to deliver four babies, the management of the Orile Agege General Hospital where she was doing her ante-natal gave her a referral to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja.
The expected delivery date (EDD) given to the Adeyinkas was June, 2021 but events started happening fast in April, two months before the EDD.
“I started feeling somehow uneasy and I complained to the doctors but I was not experiencing any unusual contraction,” she narrated to The Gazelle News.com.
But the doctors, being expert professionals knew the time has come for her to be delivered of the baby.
“They (doctors) said the time has come for her delivery and being four babies, she is going to go through ceasarian delivery,” Jimoh narrated.
“Of course I was scared because I’ve never gone through ceasarian delivery before. My two previous deliveries were done normally. No difficulties and no complications. But with the news of the ceasarian, I was scared but I still have faith in Almighty Allah and the doctors,” Tawakalitu narrated.
Thank God, it was a smooth ceasarian delivery and on Wednesday, 28 April, 2021, she was delivered of her four bundles of joy in this order: male named Jamiu; another male named Abdul Kabir; female named Kabeerat; and another male named Abdul Jalil.
Due to the fact that they could not complete the 9 month cycle, they were first kept in the incubator: Jamiu and Abdul Kabir were the first to be removed from the incubator while Kabeerat and Abdul Jalil followed two weeks later.
Both mother and babies are doing fine.
When The Gazelle News.com visited the Egbeda home of the quadrupulets big, Alhaji Waheed Adeyinka, where they are presently living, it was a happy home.
“I’m surrounded by members of my own family and those of my husband’s. I’m really in good hands,” Tawakalitu told this medium.
But there’s one challenge – breastfeeding the four babies when they are hungry for breast milk.
How does she cope?
“It is a bit of challenge. You know I don’t have four breasts. I only have two. What I do is to improvise. The first two will have a go and when I feel they are satisfied, the next two will take their turn. That’s the best I can do,” she said.
Although it has been an enormous challenge taking care of the babies, the parents said they have been coping well.
However, with the economic situation in the country, taking care of four babies simultaneously is strenuous and and is more strenuous when the parents are a civil servant and a fashion designer.
Of course, assistance is needed, hence, well meaning Nigerians and perhaps corporate organisations are needed to come to the aide of the Adeyinkas.
Copyright: The Gazelle News.com
