SINGAPORE – An audit of the 14 triplet sets delivered at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) in 2023 and 2024 found that three were conceived naturally.
The rest were conceived through assisted reproductive technology, such as in-vitro fertilisation and intrauterine insemination (IUI), said Dr Sim Wen Shan, a senior consultant at the Maternal Fetal Medicine department at KKH.
She is also the lead at the Twin Clinic, which manages women with multiple pregnancies. The clinic is part of the One-Stop Obstetric High Risk Centre, known as Stork, at KKH.
Dr Sim said the audit was done to enhance clinical practice and support its educational activities.
It found that triplet pregnancies pose “substantial” risks to the mother and babies, and complications during birth are common.
For example, eight of the women were hospitalised during their pregnancy. Four developed gestational diabetes.
Another four developed pre-eclampsia, a serious pregnancy complication characterised by high blood pressure and protein in the urine.
The women have to deliver by the 35th week of pregnancy at the latest, which means the babies are born premature.
This is due to the higher risk of maternal complications and adverse neonatal outcomes such as stillbirths, Dr Sim said.
She added that the risks of prematurity include bleeding in the brain, feeding difficulties, increased risks of infection and developmental delays. Long-term complications may include cerebral palsy.
And premature babies often require prolonged stays in the neonatal intensive care unit and special care nursery.
Half of the 14 mothers lost more than 500ml of blood during delivery, while four of them experienced severe bleeding and lost over one litre of blood.
Dr Sim said if heavy bleeding progresses to major haemorrhage, it can become life-threatening.
Correction note: In an earlier version of the story, we said that four women who developed gestational diabetes were among the eight women who were hospitalised. The KKH has clarified that the four women were among the 14 mothers in the audit, and not among the eight who were hospitalised.
