In what's being called a medical record of sorts, a 28-year-old woman in India miscarried 10 babies in one night this week, Huffington Post reported.
Anju Kushwaha, from the Satna district of central Madhya Pradesh province, went into labor at just 12 weeks on late Sunday evening and was rushed to hospital with her husband Sanjay. But during the 77-mile journey, the expectant mother gave birth to nine children, all of them stillborn, before arriving at the hospital, the Indo-Asian News Service reported.
Doctors revealed Monday that all of the babies were dead at 12 weeks.
"She delivered nine of them midway," Dr. SK Pathak, assistant superintendent of Sanjay Gandhi Memorial hospital, told the Times of India. "Obstetric and NICU team at our hospital helped her to deliver the 10th one in the operation theatre - all were born dead at almost 12 weeks."
It appears fertility drugs may have contributed to Kushwaha's conception and unusually high multiple pregnancy. Doctors at the hospital said the miscarriages followed ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome -- a complication from fertility medication, according to the Business Standard.
"It seems that that there was no regular follow-up of her pregnancy after [in vitro fertilization]," Dr. Sumitra Yadav, a senior gynecologist, told The Times Of India. "At least three offspring could have been saved by reducing the pregnancy."
High order multiples, more than three babies in the same womb, are exceptionally rare and occur almost exclusively while the woman is undergoing fertility treatment, Huffington Post reported. This is because several embryos are often implanted into her womb to increase the chances of conception, and the fact that high hormone levels, used in most fertility treatments, also increase the risk.
There have been other reported cases of doctors delivering a high number of babies in a single delivery.
A doctor in Rome claimed to have removed 15 from the womb of a 35-year-old woman in 1971, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Nadya Suleman, the "Octomom" who gave birth to eight babies in 2009, currently holds the Guinness World Record for most surviving children delivered in a single birth.
