After 12 years of hoping and praying for a child, a 35-year-old Ethiopian woman has made medical history with an extremely rare birth: a set of naturally conceived quintuplets, all born healthy in the country’s Harari Regional State.
Bedriya Adem, a subsistence farmer from the region, described herself and her husband as overjoyed by the unexpected gift of five babies four boys and one girl at once. For more than a decade, Bedriya navigated the social stigma of infertility in her community, enduring years of emotional and psychological pain even as her husband reassured her that his child from a previous marriage was enough to complete their family. “Deep inside I was suffering, as the entire village questioned my inability to give birth,” she shared in an interview with the BBC. “I spent 12 years in pain, hiding myself, and praying constantly for children at last, my prayers were answered.”
The historic delivery took place via Caesarean section on a Tuesday evening at Harari’s Hiwot Fana Specialised Hospital, where both mother and the newborns remain under routine observation for continued good health. Dr Mohammed Nur Abdulahi, the hospital’s medical director, confirmed that all five infants are in full health, weighing between 1.3 and 1.4 kilograms each. Medical guidelines note that newborns weighing more than one kilogram have a very high probability of surviving and growing into healthy children, a benchmark all five of Bedriya’s babies meet.
What makes the birth even more extraordinary is that Bedriya conceived without any reproductive assistance like in vitro fertilization, a procedure not available at Hiwot Fana Specialised Hospital. IVF is widely known to increase the risk of multiple births when multiple embryos are transferred to the uterus, but naturally conceived quintuplets are a one-in-55-million event, according to global fertility data.
In a surprising twist, Bedriya was only expecting four babies throughout her prenatal care, which she received consistently from the hospital’s medical team. It was only at the time of delivery that the medical team discovered a fifth baby the healthy little girl the couple have named Nazira, alongside her four brothers Naif, Ammar, Munzir, and Ansar. The couple have dubbed their five new arrivals the “five blessings”, a nod to their long wait and joyful surprise.
While Bedriya acknowledges that her new role as a mother of five will bring financial challenges as a low-income subsistence farmer, she says she remains optimistic about the future. “I believe Allah will provide, through the support of my community and the government,” she said. For the first-time mother, the years of pain and stigma she endured now feel like a distant, unwanted memory, replaced by the overwhelming joy of welcoming the family she spent 12 years dreaming of.