St Ives Clinic Makes History Again, As 68-year-old Woman Delivers Twins
In these bleakest of times, comes the grandest of feats. It is during the world’s darkest moments that some of its best stories emerge. And one does not have to go far from home to find them. Take the case of 68-year-old Mrs Adenuga. For years and years, she yearned for the fruits of the womb, the wail of a child to call her own, but life, it seemed, had other plans in store.
Who would have thought that she would finally get her wish in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic? Yet, thanks to the yeoman efforts of Dr Babatunde Okewale and his team of dedicated fertility doctors at St Ives Hospital, that is exactly what happened.
The jubilant woman, who would pass for most people’s grandmother, gave birth to a set of twin children at the ripe young age of 68. The delivery was conducted at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) through an elective cesarean section on Tuesday, April 14.
Mrs Adenuga has earlier undergone an IVF and embryo transfer under the close supervision of Dr Babatunde Okewale at St Ives Hospital, Abeokuta. The foremost fertility clinic in Nigeria had already broken many records in helping women to conceive through IVF but this was on a whole different level.
The difficulty of getting a woman of an advanced age to conceive cannot be overstated. Yet, Dr Okewale was unfazed. When there is a will, there is a way. His decade-long experience in the field came to the fore during the difficult process. Allied to Mrs Adenuga’s fierce desire to finally scale the childbearing hurdle, the impossible was made possible as the embryo was successfully transferred to her womb.
Thereafter, she was referred to LUTH at early gestation where the able Dr Okunowo and his team managed her till term.
If these were normal times, the latest mother in town would already have been showered with gifts and congratulations from well-meaning Nigerians. LUTH would have been besieged by those wishing to catch a glimpse of the miracle mother and children. These, sadly, are not normal times. But nothing, not even Covid-19, can dim her joy.