The original article can be found in: Trinidad Newsday By MIRANDA LA ROSE
The Mount Hope Women’s Hospital is preparing for another set of multiple births in July, or before, but this time around, they are preparing for triplets.
On March 4 last, the women’s hospital successfully delivered by Caesarian section sextuplets, the first in Trinidad and Tobago and in the Caribbean. On February 7 last, Newsday was told that a mother-to-be who was expecting quadruplets, had been admitted to the Mt Hope Women’s Hospital.
A source told Newsday that since that announcement, the mother was no longer carrying four foetuses. One of the foetuses died during the 13 to 14 week of gestation. Newsday could not ascertain whether or not the mother had opted for foetal reduction also known as “selective reduction” (abortion) of one of the foetuses. According to the online Telegraph, over the past few years, there has been a sharp rise in the number of women terminating one foetus or more, but continuing with a pregnancy and bearing at least one other child.
Experts say that the increase in so-called “selective reductions” has largely been caused by a rise in multiple pregnancies following fertility treatment.
The selective reduction is to ensure that the surviving babies have a better chance at normal growth and development.
