A 43-year-old mother-of-five has naturally conceived quadruplets in a surprise pregnancy just months after losing her home during Hurricane Harvey.
Ruth Mochire had to undergo a blood test in November after she and her husband Joshua returned from a one-month trip in their native Kenya.
The blood test, to check her health before returning to work at a refinery, revealed four fetuses in their third trimester.
Doctors revealed Ruth’s due date is January 15, meaning that within a month she and Joshua will have nine children.
Ruth and Joshua are currently living in two temporary apartments in Baytown, Texas, with their kids – Victor, Jacky, Mephis, Sylvia, and Enoch, aged between 10 and 20 years old – after the August hurricane flooded their home and destroyed all their possessions.
Now, their church has launched a GoFundMe page to raise money to support their soon-to-be enormous family.
Ruth Mochire, from Baytown, Texas, had a blood test in November after she and her husband Joshua (pictured) returned from a one-month trip in their native Kenya. It revealed four fetuses
Speaking to KHOU, Ruth admitted she and Joshua were not planning on having any other children, and they were shocked by the blood test result.
‘My foreman comes and tells me like ‘Ruth you can’t go back, it shows that you are pregnant. And I was like, to be pregnant at this age, it’s so odd to be over 40 years of age and be pregnant and mid-40’s is like impossible.’
She said it is stigmatized in Kenya to have a baby past 40, but she is coming to terms with it.
Instead, she faces much more pressing problems, like supporting a family of 11.
‘We have stuff everywhere in the house because we were trying as much as possible to move what we could save out,’ she said.
Fearing for the babies’ development, doctors have suggested they may consider a c-section as early as next week.
Ruth told the channel she will go into Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston on December 21 for testing. The babies will remain in intensive care for one month before they can come home.
‘How do you go in, they take the babies out and then you leave the babies in the hospital and then you go home and come back, see them and then go home?’ Ruth said.
‘I know I can get through it, it’s just going to be hard to think about it.’