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Dudzai Matewu and David Shumba Harare Bureau
A 20-YEAR-OLD woman from Mbare in Harare has given birth to quadruplets – ALL GIRLS.
Overjoyed Alice Mutasa delivered naturally at Harare Central Hospital two weeks ago.
The babies, weighing 2,5kg, 2,3kg, 2,1kg and 1,6kg each, are all healthy and feeding well.
Mutasa said: “I knew I had quadruplets because I had gone for a scan before I gave birth, so I was prepared for my girls.”
But her four bundles of joy are now a source of anxiety because the one-bedroom house she shares with her husband – a struggling street vendor — and their first-born son has become too small.
She said: “We already had one child before these four, so it’s now seven of us living in one room.
“The biggest challenge I have is providing for the children. My husband is self employed and doesn’t make much money, while I’m unemployed.”
Mutasa said they had been surviving on donations of clothes and blankets to keep the children warm as the winter chill continues.
“We’re appealing to well-wishers to help us, things are tough for us,” she said.
She admitted caring for the four children was also a challenge, but she knows getting help — she has considered asking her mum in rural Buhera to travel to Harare — would mean an eighth resident in their small room.
The Society of St Vincent de Paul of the Roman Catholic Church has donated clothing, but Mutasa says they need more, as well as food.
Dade Pedzisai, a matron at Harare Central Hospital, said Mutasa required proper accommodation.
“In such a scenario, we usually discharge maternity mothers when their child reaches two kilogrammes but Alice’s three babies weighed two kilogrammes and above, while one is less than two kilogrammes. They’re still in hospital because she has no accommodation,” said Pedzisai.
derick.khumalo