Newswise — After the devastating loss of two children in infancy, Lakshmi and Sreedhar Raparla have four very special reasons to celebrate Mother's Day this year. The Artesia, Calif., couple became the parents of quadruplets in February —instantly doubling the size of their family. The babies were born at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, spent only about a week in the hospital's Newborn Intensive Care Unit " an extremely short stay for quadruplets " and are now at home, where they weigh in at nearly seven pounds each.
"This was an exceptional experience," says Ruth Cousineau, M.D., the Raparla's obstetrician at Cedars-Sinai. "Quadruplets are normally at extremely high risk because they're born prematurely and can spend weeks or months in the hospital, and have serious developmental problems. But these babies are doing great."
When Lakshmi discovered she was pregnant last summer, the couple was thrilled—and apprehensive. Her two previous pregnancies had been uneventful, but they culminated in tragedy. After the birth of a baby boy in 2004, Lakshmi took him to India to see her family. There, he developed pneumonia and died. When the couple had a daughter in 2006, they thought this would begin a new chapter in their lives. However, the infant was severely anemic, and passed away at four months while waiting for a liver transplant.
Grief-stricken, but unwilling to give up on their dream of having a large family (they already had two sons, ages 10 and 7, who are being educated in India), they felt their prayers had been answered last year when Lakshmi became pregnant. However, when an ultrasound detected four heartbeats, their doctor urged them to do a selective reduction, a procedure in which one or more of the fetuses are terminated to increase the chances the remaining infants will be born healthy. But the Raparlas were undaunted by the potential dangers, and switched doctors " to Cousineau, an obstetrician at Cedars-Sinai who specializes in high risk pregnancies. .
"We lost two babies before so we know how important life is," says Sreedhar, 38, a computer consultant for a local school district. "My first thought was 'God is giving us back the two babies we lost.'"
Cousineau told them that if Lakshmi could carry the infants for at least 28 weeks, they would have a 90 percent chance of survival. "The doctor said that 28 weeks would be good, but 34 weeks would be spectacular," says Sreedhar. "So that became our goal."
But it was tough getting there. By the end of her second trimester, Lakshmi's uterus had become so distended that her doctor performed a cervical cerclage, a procedure in which the cervix is stitched. She was also put on bedrest, so Sreedhar learned how to cook and would prepare nutritious Indian meals for his housebound wife before he left for work. Lakshmi fought hard to keep from giving birth and every day that passed was another milestone. "I was so uncomfortable and it felt like there was a big rock on my belly," says Lakshmi, 34, who gained more than 50 pounds. "I had trouble sleeping and breathing. . . Every day, I'd think nothing is harder than this. But I had it in my mind that I had to make it to 34 weeks because I didn't want my babies to have any problems."
She got her wish; after gestating for nearly 35 weeks, which is considered phenomenal for quadruplets, their three daughters and one son arrived on February 22. "All the infants were amazingly healthy, big babies, none of them required respiratory assistance, and they only spent about a week in the intensive care nursery," says Cousineau. The four babies ranged in size from 4 pounds, 5 ounces to 4 pounds, 12 ounces.
Although the Raparla's lives are now consumed by a seemingly endless round of feeding and diaper changes " volunteers from two churches in their neighborhood pitch in during the day " they couldn't be happier. "The babies are almost seven pounds now," says Lakshmi, who is still recovering from her surgery. "They sleep together in one crib to stay warm. And every day, we can see changes in them."
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