Healthy test-tube triplets born in Surabaya

ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

Adriani Widianto was sprawled on her hospital bed, her face pale, and her body in pain, wrapped in a thick blanket.

"Thanks for paying me a visit. I'm surprised that my babies are attracting so much attention from the media," she told The Jakarta Post in an interview in St. Vincensius A. Paulo Catholic Hospital in Surabaya.

The 37-year-old woman, who had just given birth to three babies conceived through in-vitro fertilization, is the wife of Denny Kurniawan, a banker in Surabaya. The babies were born at the hospital on Tuesday. This is the first case in Surabaya where three in-vitro babies have survived until birth. Normally, in- vitro fertilization only produced one or two babies.

Adriani had to go through a long process before she became pregnant. "We have dreamed of having a baby for a long time, and thank God, our dream has come true," she said.

Adriani and her husband had to fight hard to get their babies, starting five years ago. They visited many doctors and even tried alternative medical treatments, but all their efforts had been fruitless. As their efforts came to an impasse, the couple decided to have a thorough medical check up. It was discovered that Adriani's ovum channel was too narrow, while her husband also had weak sperm. Doctors said that the only solution was for the couple to go into an in-vitro fertilization program.

The couple were determined to go through with the process, but they couldn't do it straight away. According to the doctor, they had to pay Rp 30 million (US$3,130) to cover the cost of the procedures.

"We saved our money and in October last year, my husband's sperm was surgically implanted into my womb at the Budi Mulia Hospital in the city," she said.

Adriani felt very lucky that the process had gone smoothly. The process culminated on Tuesday morning when the first baby, Lynn Louise was born, followed by two other babies a few minutes later, Cliff Louise and Glenn Louise.

The family was very happy, including Budiono, Denny Kurniawan's father and grandfather to the three babies.

"I expected a baby, but in the end, we got three," he said happily.

According to data at Vincensius Hospital, in-vitro fertilization births happened every year at the hospital, but Adrian's case was unique because it was the first time that the process had produced three babies, all of whom survived.

"Last year, a mother also had triplets through the process, but one of them later died," said Dafrosa Maria Y, spokeswoman for the hospital.

Fortunately, all of Adriani's babies were born healthy.

"All of them are over 2 kilograms in weight, and they are healthy," said Dafrosa. However, in order to avoid the unexpected, the three babies are being kept in the hospital's Intensive Care Unit.