WATCH | ‘I cried out of fear’: mom on when she first heard she was carrying quadruplets

When Nomcebo Likhuleni heard that her pregnancy bump was so big because she was carrying quadruplets, she burst into tears. The 30-year-old Mpumalanga woman already has a six-year-old daughter and did not know how she would be able to care for four more children because she is unemployed. At three months pregnant, Likhuleni suspected she was carrying more than one baby because of the big bump.

Sheassumedit would be twins because there was a history of twins in her and the father’s families. “At the same time, I also told myself that if it was just one baby, then it was big,” she said. “When I went for my first appointment, the doctors didn’t believe I was three months pregnant; they thought I was seven months.” Likhuleni said she “relaxed” after the first doctor told her she was carrying twins.

But when another doctor confirmed that she was carrying four, she burst into tears. “I didn’t expect that, especially because I’m unemployed.” Likhuleni is from the small village of Buyelani in Mpumalanga. Despite the high-risk nature of her pregnancy, she said it was relatively smooth, though physically demanding.

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“I was always tired; you can imagine carrying four babies,” she said. Likhuleni attended regular check-ups every two weeks to monitor her pregnancy. The quadruplets were born prematurely via caesarean section on April 23, the same day as her six-year-old daughter’s birthday.

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