Alexandra Kinova has given birth to quintuplets in the Czech Republic, officials say, a first for the country.
Alexandra Kinova, 23, had four boys and a girl by caesarean section on Sunday, they say.
The births took place “without any complications”, according to doctors at Prague’s Institute for the Care of Mother and Child.
The mother and babies were placed in an intensive care unit but are believed to be in a good condition.
Alexandra Kinova has given birth to quintuplets in the Czech Republic
The Czech Republic’s first quintuplets, who were conceived naturally without IVF, have a 95% chance of growing up healthy, the Associated Press quoted Zbynek Stranak, chief doctor at the neonatal section of the institute, as saying.
The boys’ names are reportedly Deniel, Michael, Alex and Martin, while the girl is called Terezka.
Alexandra Kinova, who is from the town of Milovice, about 12 miles north-east of the capital, Prague, already had one son.
She originally believed she was pregnant with twins, but in March doctors upped it to four – and then five in April.
The father of the quintuplets was present at the delivery despite his train being delayed, according to the newspaper Ceske Noviny.
“I was crying all the way since I feared I would not manage it,” he said.
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Alexandra Kinova from Czech Republic has beaten staggering odds to become pregnant with quintuplets without using IVF.
Alexandra Kinova, 23, is due to give birth by Caesarean section on Sunday to the Czech Republic’s first ever set of quins.
Alexandra Kinova, who already has one son, did not realize she was carrying five babies until last month.
At first doctors said she was having twins but in March staff at the Prague Institute for the Care of Mother and Child said she was actually pregnant with four children.
However, it was not until the following month that she finally discovered she was having quintuplets.
Alexandra Kinova, from Milovice, about 30 km (20 miles) east of Prague, told Czech news site denik.cz that she was in shock when she was told.
She said: “When we finally found a fifth head, I started to cry.”
According to local media, her children will be the country’s first set of quins.
Alexandra Kinova from Czech Republic has beaten staggering odds to become pregnant with quintuplets without using IVF
The odds of conceiving quins naturally is one in several million, according to experts.
The mother said both she and her partner have a family history of twins.
Alexandra Kinova said aside from four months of morning sickness, she has had few complications in the pregnancy.
She said she has been able to sleep on her side and has not had any problems with her breathing.
Alexandra Kinova said she plans to breastfeed all five, as she did with her first-born son.
She told denik: “The first child I nursed for almost a year and a half and I want to breastfeed now.
“While I know that some will be on artificial nutrition.”
Alexandra Kinova said despite the best efforts of the doctors they still do not know the gender of all the babies.
Two of the unborn babies are hidden underneath the other three – two boys and a girl, who she plans to call Daniel, Michael and Tereza.
Alexandra Kinova said: “I very much look forward to seeing how they will look. It’s a great charm, but we cannot see anything properly -only a head or legs.”
The hospital will double the number of doctors and midwives for her Caesarean.
They said they have administered drugs to help speed up the development of the babies’ lungs but they cannot be sure of their condition until they are born.
Dr. Alena Měchurová, head of the hospital, said they hope that all five babies and the mother will be fine but said they cannot rule out complications.
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A US research suggests that babies who are delivered through Caesarean section are twice as likely to become obese than those born traditionally.
Researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital in Massachusetts found a doubling in the odds of obesity by the time the child was three years old.
The team said birth by C-section might affect bacteria in the gut, which in turn affects the way food is digested.
The study looked at 1,255 pairs of mothers and children from 1999 to 2002.
The mothers joined the study – published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood – before 22 weeks of pregnancy.
A US research suggests that babies who are delivered through Caesarean section are twice as likely to become obese than those born traditionally
Their babies were measured and weighed at birth and this was repeated at the age of three.
About one in four of the deliveries were C-section births and the remainder were vaginal deliveries.
The team found a link between body mass, skin thickness and how a child was born.
They also found that mothers who delivered by C-section tended to weigh more than those delivering traditionally – something which is known to influence obesity.
But the researchers said another possible explanation was the difference in the composition of gut bacteria acquired at birth between the two delivery methods.
They suggested expectant mothers who choose a C-section should be made aware of the obesity risk to their babies.
