Duhok woman gives birth to quadruplets following 15-year struggle

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A woman in Duhok has given birth to four babies at once after 15 years of waiting for such a moment.

The mother gave birth to the babies in late June, but the newborns needed urgent “intensive care” due to complications, Dr. Semedar Selim, told Kurdistan 24 on Sunday.

The babies and their mother are now “in stable condition,” he said.

The woman had a preterm delivery, a medical term denoting births that take place before the completion of the 37 weeks of pregnancy, the doctor said, adding the babies received intensive care as they were underweight.

Each of them weighs over a kilogram now, the supervising doctor said, adding the monitoring will continue until their weight reach a healthy level.

The quadruplets, two girls and two boys, came following a 15-year struggle for the Christian couple in Duhok province.

The Kurdistan Region has on occasion previously witnessed such extraordinary births.

A woman in Erbil in 2021 gave birth to sextuplets (six babies at once). However, the newborns did not survive due to delivery complications despite rigorous medical interventions, doctors said at the time.

Additional reporting by Kurdistan 24 Duhok reporter Maher Sinjari