As the nation celebrated Republic Day, it was a busy holiday for doctors at a Bulandshahr hospital. Seven twins — eight boys and six girls — were born using the in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) technique to seven childless mothers on the day. The doctors carried out seven Caesarean surgeries in 12
hours.
“We started at 6am and continued till 6.30pm. It was a conscious decision to deliver all the test-tube babies as Caesarean as twin deliveries for full-term mothers can sometimes get very risky,” said Dr Sarita (who goes by her first name), an IVF specialist at Adam and Eve Test Tube Centre and Research Institute, who carried out the treatment with the help of embryologist Dr Akash Sharma.
IVF is a fertilisation process that manually combined an egg and sperm in a laboratory dish. It is a major treatment in infertility when other methods of assisted reproductive technology fail.
“All the mothers who conceived in May last year started showing symptoms of a full-blown delivery. The twin weight on an average was around 4.3-4.5 kgs, meaning over two kgs per child, which was good and so we decided to bring these babies out on Republic Day,” she said.
“All the babies are stable and in good health. They will be going home very soon,” said Mukul Maheshwari, a clinic official. On an average, one in four IVF pregnancies results in either twins or triplets, compared with one in 80 when the baby is conceived naturally.
The average success rate of IVF treatment in India is 30% per attempt. Success rates are higher among couples below 35 years.