Peshawar: In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s hospitals, doctors are facing an alarming situation: maternity wards and birthing rooms are increasingly filled with cries of multiple-pair babies: twins, triplets and quadruplets are being born every day.
In 2015 alone, the province recorded a total of 1165 multiple gestations—the condition of carrying two or more fetuses simultaneously. Major hospitals, including Lady Reading Hospital, Khyber Reaching Hospital and the Hayatabad Medical Complex of Peshawar (HMCP), have calculated a total of 26 cases of quadruplets, 158 cases of triplets, and over 900 cases of twins.
Each hospital claims to have seen at least two hundred pairs of twins born in the last year.
Medical experts blame the frequent use of fertilising medicines, and the custom of marrying at a late age. But in the absence of sexual health awareness and family planning practices, especially in lower-income areas, many couples end up using heavy fertiliser medicine that helps in giving twins.
Demands are that the government should ban the frequent sale of fertilising medicine, which makes it easily accessible. She believes it is difficult for families to manage the unexpected additional children, especially when they are poor.
PNN
