New Jersey Quintuplets' Mom Keeps Faith During Dramatic Pregnancy

HUDSON COUNTY, NJ — A New Jersey mother’s faith in her unborn children – all five of them – is reminding her community about the amazing and miraculous power of family.

At the center of the inspiring tale is Abla Boutaba, who with her partner, Salim Mostefaoui, welcomed newborn quintuplets into the world earlier this month. The three girls, Nouha, Tala and Rouba, and two boys, Elmahdi and Elhadi, were born on Jan. 6. Each are doing "phenomenally" and continue to receive care at the Jersey City Medical Center, hospital administrators said.

But the story goes much deeper, according to Boutaba’s OB-GYN, Mohamed Esiely, who recently reached out to Patch about his patient’s amazing delivery, believed to be the first quintuplet birth in Hudson County.

According to Esiely, Boutaba and Mostefaoui originally planned on using in vitro fertilization (IVF) to conceive a child. Excited to kick off the process, the mother-to-be voyaged to her county of origin – Algeria – to have the IVF procedure done. But once in Algeria, Boutaba received the first of what was to be several Hollywood-esque plot twists… she was already naturally pregnant.

After learning the stunning news, Boutaba returned to the U.S. and began prenatal care with Esiely. And that’s when the Hoboken-based doctor found out that she was carrying quintuplets during an early ultrasound.

It was shocking news for the mother-to-be. But even more heartrending was the accompanying recommendation from a specialty team of medical professionals: she should “reduce the number of babies” to increase the chances of survival for the others.

For Mostefaoui and Boutaba – who ended up being admitted to the hospital twice during her pregnancy to treat an existing cardiac condition – the choice was agonizing, especially considering the high risks that come with a quintuplet birth. But unwilling to surrender a single child, Boutaba returned to Esiely and told him that she wanted to keep all five.

It was a decision that Esiely supported a hundred percent, he said.

From that point on – until checking into Jersey City Medical Center – Boutaba was a frequent visitor to the offices of Health Wise Women in Hoboken. In turn, the OB-GYN was there for his patient through the entire pregnancy, including her emergency Caesarean section earlier this month.

According to Jersey City Medical Center administrators, there were only 49 sets of quintuplets or higher order births in the United States during 2017. Quintuplets and higher order pregnancies do not generally reach the full term of 40 weeks. For quintuplets, generally the average term for delivery is about 28 weeks.

Boutaba delivered at only 27 and a half weeks, administrators said.

"They are doing beyond well, all five of them," a hospital administrator said of the newborns last week. "They are all breathing on their own and with birth weights that ranged from a little over 600 grams to a little over 1,000 grams, I would say they're doing phenomenally."

• See related article: Quintuplets Born At Jersey City Hospital Beat The Odds (PHOTOS)

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Main photo courtesy of Health Wise Women / Mohamed Esiely