FAMILY’S FUTURE COMES IN FOURS WITH QUADS BORN AT MATER

A set of quadruplets has been welcomed into the world at Mater Mothers’ Hospital in South Brisbane, the first born there in four years.

The babies, who arrived 11 weeks early, are brothers Louis, Eddie and Archie and sister Anna.

Celebrating this week’s Multiple Birth Awareness Week, Ipswich parents Yogesh and Aruna Joshi said they were “shocked” when they found out more than one baby would be joining their family.

“The doctor said there might be two babies in there, and then he said, ‘No, actually there’s four!’,” Mr Joshi said laughing.

“It’s amazing and it was unexpected. They are our much-wanted babies.”

The couple, from Redbank Plains, said the journey to bring their “four precious miracles” home from the Mater Mothers’ Neonatal Intensive Care Unit had at times been daunting.

Due on January 5, the quadruplets arrived on October 21, with Archie, the smallest, weighing just 593gms.

Anna spent about 100 days in hospital, and Archie, Eddie and Louis were there for about 90 days, receiving continuous care as they battled breathing difficulties and infections.

Fortunately, the tiny quads had a world-leading team of doctors, nurses, midwives and allied health clinicians on their side in Mater’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where they received around-the-clock care.

Mrs Joshi said her dream of becoming a mother had “finally come true”.

“I am a bit tired, but I am glad they are healthy and home from hospital now,” she said. “We’re so thankful to Mater for helping us bring our miracles home safely.

“Anna still needs a feeding tube, and Archie is on oxygen and has a feeding tube, but they are growing much bigger day by day.”

The last time quadruplets – all girls – were born at Mater Mothers’ Hospital was in 2018, with the previous set arriving back in 2011.

Mater Centre for Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) Fellow Dr Phoebe Swan said Mater’s expert sonographers kept a close eye on the quadruplets throughout Mrs Joshi’s pregnancy.

“Keeping four babies separate takes a lot of skill, although it is helped by one being a different gender and their being varying sizes,” Dr Swan said.

Dr Swan said carrying four babies had posed significant risk to Mrs Joshi and her babies.

“I saw Aruna at her first visit to MFM at 14 weeks, after she had recently arrived in Australia from Nepal, and I was there for the delivery of her babies,” Dr Swan said.

“It was really lovely to be able to provide continuity of care for Aruna and to be part of the wonderful MFM team that cared for the family before, during and after the births.”

Mater Director of Neonatology Dr Pita Birch said it was great to hear that the once tiny bundles of joy were gaining weight and developing their own personalities.

“Thanks to modern maternity care and research, the medical, nursing and allied health teams within the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit are able to save sick babies like Louis, Eddie, Archie and Anna,” Dr Birch said.