Hamilton triplets born in lockdown
Vishnu Nair is the proud father of triplets – but he’s only seen the trio twice in the 10 days since they were born prematurely. It’s not the way the new Hamilton dad expected the experience to go but due to lockdown restrictions only one person is allowed in to see them a day and that has largely been their mother, Akshaya.
The Nairs were introduced in 2016 before getting married a year later. They lived a little, travelled, bought a house 18 months ago, then decided in late September last year to have a baby. A month later, they found out they were pregnant. Not with one child, but three.
On May 1, Ishan and his healthy identical twin sisters Janaki and Bhanavi arrived into the world. It was at the first scan that the parents got the shock of their lives discovering they were having triplets.
It was shock that spread around the wider family as there was no history of twins or multiple births in either family.
“It is completely out of the blue. There’s no history at all,” Nair said.
Doctors did have concerns about Akshaya going full term with triplets, due to her slight frame, he said. “She was 43kg before she got pregnant, so the doctors were very worried that she wouldn’t be able to go more than 30 weeks of pregnancy with triplets.” When she reached 31 weeks, Waikato Hospital staff advised her to stay there so they could monitor her until her scheduled C-section at 34 weeks, or on May 1. She managed to go the full 34 weeks without a problem.
The only difficulty was lockdown. Given the imminent arrival of triplets, the couple had to travel to Auckland Hospital for regular scans until she reached 31 weeks. Lockdown meant Akshaya had to go to many appointments by herself.
Akshaya was now doing well and was discharged from hospital on Sunday. Now she continues to make daily visits to Waikato Hospital’s Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
“Hospital staff gave her all the support and good stuff and it’s all worked out.”
Asked how long the babies were expected to stay there, Nair said it was likely until their proper due date of June 10.
See the full article in the NZHerald here
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