Indonesian woman gives birth to quintuplets

A 33-year-old Indonesian woman gave birth to quintuplets -- four boys and one girl -- at the Harapan Kita Maternity Hospital in West Jakarta on Saturday.

All the babies are healthy and the mother, identified as Yuliani, is also in a good condition.

She gave birth to the quintuplets through Caesarean section conducted by four doctors -- Dr. Nurwansyah, Dr. Ferdy, Dr. Rudy and Dr. Toto.

The first boy weighed 1.578 kg, the second is 1.189 kg, the third is 1.602 kg and the fourth is 1.405 kg while the girl weighed 1.196 kg.

Yuliani's husband, 55-year-old Mon Sartono Widjaja, said it had never crossed in his mind that he would one day have quintuplets.

"After four or five years of marriage we still haven't gotten any children. We had consulted doctors, practitioners of Chinese medicine and traditional Indonesian healers in the hope of being able to get children," he was quoted as saying by Antara news agency.

Mon said he found out he was to be a father of five in the sixth month of Yuliani's pregnancy during a check-up at the Graha Medika Hospital, West Jakarta.

"When we learned of this, we agreed to keep it a secret," he said. -- JP