Posted by By ISAAC ANUMIHE, Abuja on
Thirty-six-year old labourer, Mr Cosmas Ebiziem, has vowed not to sleep with his wife again after their second attempt to have children resulted in triplets. Their first issue was twins.
Thirty-six-year old labourer, Mr Cosmas Ebiziem, has vowed not to sleep with his wife again after their second attempt to have children resulted in triplets. Their first issue was twins.
According to him, the wife, who is also a twin, is too productive and will likely give him a quadruple if he
was not careful. Before the triplets, he had tactically avoided his wife for two years without having sex with her. He elected to be on duty for the period so that he would avoid contact with his wife.
Said he: 'This is enough for me. Two boys, three girls. Before I had them (triplets), I starved myself of sex for two years. I was on night duty for two years before I had the triplets. So, why can't I starve again? My wife is a twin. Our first issue is twins, George and Judith. This is our second issue.
"We went for scan at the eighth month. When they told me it was triplets, I didn't believe it. The government should come to our rescue as my meager resources cannot sustain the babies."
Run away
Usually, men like Cosmas who are without means to look after the children take flight at the sight of multiple births. But why didn't he run away? 'I didn't want the woman to suffer because I love her. I put all my hope in God and today God has really shown mercy to the extent that the Lions' Club (Abuja) picked the hospital bills. Some NGOS and our church tried too," he stated, while listing the names of the children as Chinasa, Akachukwu and Chidera.
Wife
His wife, Chika who hails from Owerri in Ngo Okpala, understood multiple birth to mean twins but when it turned out to be triplets her heart sank.
'I thought it was twins but I couldn't believe it when I saw three. But I thank God for that. I will like to have more children if there is money," she said.
Foundation
A Non Government Organisation (NGO) known as Multiple Child Birth Foundation has claimed that Nigeria has the highest number of multiple births in the world. While attributing the phenomenon to the kind of foods Nigerians eat, the Secretary of the foundation, Mrs Offon Ufok Akpabio, disclosed that the NGO was founded to take care of those children whose parents are indigent.
Her words: 'It is very curious to find out that in this foundation, those who have twins are actually fewer than those who have triplets. So, you have more of those who have triplets. It is very curious. And in the west you find a lot of Yoruba women having Kehinde and Taiwo. But we can't reach out to these people as much as we can because once we are able to sensitize people that having triplets or twins is not a curse but a blessing, it is better for the society.
"Some people still see it as a taboo. We give them emotional, financial and material support as much as we can. We go to the church. We speak with the people and there is a small informal group we also reach out to. And the second thing is to direct these pregnant women.
"If you have a history of twins or such things in your family or you feel that your pregnancy is not just one baby, it is two babies or whatever, you go to the hospital because when you are pregnant with one baby, your nutrition is different from when you are not pregnant with two babies. And so, a lot of them always have complications either because they do not take the proper medication or the nutrition was not right or they exerted themselves more than they should have."
Intervention
At what point does Multiple Child Birth Foundation come in?
'We start from the pregnancy. And when the babies are born, we try to help. We have been settling hospital bills and in our own little ways we still help. And when the kids are grown, we teach them nutrition. We know they can't afford tinned foods and all the baby cereal, so we teach them how to make foods. Making food rich in protein like using groundnut, crayfish, mixing it with the food and all that. So, when the baby is up to school age, we also support in giving scholarships. When the woman herself is strong enough, we try to encourage her to trade or do any other profession she is interested in."