For seven years after their marriage in 2011, Mrs. Manji Sebastian Pyoklam and her husband, Sebastian of Jos South local government area of Plateau State kept running helter-skelter and praying to have a child.
Then, to their utter astonishment, Mrs. Manji got pregnant last year. Shortly after Mrs. Manji told her husband she was pregnant, they went to the hospital, only to be told after a scan that she will be having a set of quadruplets. The news was as exciting as it was shocking.
On February 9, 2019 she gave birth to quadruplets – two males and two females through caesarian section. “This is my first pregnancy,” she said.
Even though Mrs. Manji and her husband were excited after the scan result, the fear of uncertainty had engulfed their minds, “because we didn’t know what it entails, but at the end of the day I was very happy when I was delivered of the quadruplets, I requested to see them and I held them one by one.”
Mrs. Manji, 33, who works with the Plateau State government, is the first to have quadruplets in the state. “There are records of twins in my mother’s family, but I am the first to have quadruplets in our family and even in the state,” she said.
“The pregnancy was quite peaceful and stress free, but it made me eat heavily.” Manji’s husband, Mr. Sebastian Pyokalam Jibrin, a businessman and part-time lecturer at the College of Health, Zawan, is elated at becoming a father after seven years. “We really appreciate God for the pregnancy and successful delivery.
We have been trusting God all these years so when she told me she was pregnant last year, I was very happy. And when we went to the hospital after one month and the doctor scanned her and told us it was a set of quadruplets, I was shocked.
“We kept praying together and it was amazing how the pregnancy went; she wasn’t complaining and even during her ante-natal the doctor told us everything was normal.”
During the pregnancy, the doctor advised that his wife be put on bed rest but because of financial challenges, they couldn’t afford that.
“I told her the God that gave us quadruplets after seven years of waiting would take care of them and that was our trust.” “We were going to hospital for almost seven months, and when I wanted to go to my village last Christmas, I decided to take her to hospital for bed rest because it was high risk to leave her at home.
“I took her to the hospital not because she was sick but to take precaution, because even at that point she still cooks food and does some house chores,” he said.
“The doctor advised that anytime she started feeling sick or cannot work, he would operate her. She gave birth through CS at almost nine months and the babies were matured; they didn’t need extra oxygen,” he said.
Presently, the babies are healthy and eat very well. “There hasn’t been any support from government. If I’m not mistaken, I think ours is the first family to have quadruplets in the state, therefore I am appealing to government, NGOs and individuals to assist us. It has been very difficult taking care of them without any form of support,” said Jibrin.
