German quads still in intensive care

Premature quadruplets born to a 65-year-old German woman are still in intensive care, doctors say, but have been gaining a little weight and are being given their mother’s milk through feeding tubes.

Annegret Raunigk, from Berlin, left intensive care 48 hours after the delivery and is doing well. She gave birth by caesarean section to a girl and three boys during her 26th week of pregnancy at Berlin’s Charite Hospital on May 19.

Director of obstetrics at Charite, Wolfgang Henrich, said Raunigk is believed to be the oldest mother to have ever delivered quadruplets.

The school teacher already has 13 children aged 44 to nine from five other fathers.

Because egg donation is illegal in Germany, she travelled to Ukraine to have donated, fertilised eggs transferred.

She says she decided to become pregnant again because her nine-year-old daughter wanted a younger sibling.

Four teams of specialised nurses and doctors were involved in delivering the babies .

The baby girl Neeta and her three brothers — Dries, Bence, and Fjonn — weighed between 655g (1lb 7oz) and 960g(2lb 2oz) each at birth. Their exact weight today is not known as they are too fragile to be put on a scale.

Neeta is the smallest but is fitter than her brothers, said Christoph Buehrer, Charite’s director of neonatology. She underwent successful surgery this week to close two small holes in her intestines. All four babies will remain in intensive care for several weeks and are supported by machines helping them breathe.