As of November 2007, there were an estimated 763 sets of quintuplets in the world, according to the Facts About Multiples Web site. More than 200 of these sets have been born in the United States.

In December, a woman in Uganda gave birth to the first set of quintuplets in her country with the arrival of four girls and one boy at Jinja Hospital. However, all of them had low birth weights ranging from 2 pounds to 3.3 pounds.

Moses Bateganya, a doctor originally from Uganda who is studying for a master’s in public health at the UW, was inspired by the births.

“The mother comes a few miles from where I was born, so I am very excited that my district has five new inhabitants,” he said in a press release. “But I am worried about how they will be raised.”

Because of the poor conditions the children are enduring, Bateganya has started a campaign to help the infants.

“It will be impossible for a peasant to raise five children who were born so small in a hospital that has no capacity to provide for them,” he said. “Instead of using incubators, the children are being warmed by the kangaroo method, where they are made to lie on the mother’s abdomen.”

The hospital is located nearly 50 miles east of Kampala, the capital of Uganda, and serves millions of people in the area.

“Jinja serves as the referral hospital for a region of about 5 million people, taking the more complicated cases that are referred from the smaller health centers,” said Emily Bancroft, an alumna from the UW School of Public Health and Community Medicine. “In reality, many people come straight to Jinja Hospital without being referred, so the patient load is incredibly high.”

Bancroft is visiting Uganda and had the opportunity to see the mother and her babies.

“We met the mother in a tiny room with twin beds where she and a helper were ‘kangarooing’ the babies, nestling them on their bellies, under blankets, to keep them warm,” she said. “We knew from the doctor that was showing us around the hospital that one of the girls died recently. The other four babies, according to the head of the ward, were doing OK, although their mother was having difficulty nursing them all, and she had run out of formula.”

Bateganya has already donated money to the family, hoping to help pay for a few weeks supply of milk and diapers.

He also hopes to help the hospital by improving the technology available to doctors.

“[I hope] to see what kind of collaboration with the UW can be forged to improve obstetric outcomes, [possibly] by equipping the hospital with even a used ultrasound scanner and obstetric instruments,” he said.

Bateganya said anything anyone can donate would be helpful.

“We certainly need more people to join us,” he said.

For Bancroft, the mother and her new babies inspired her and made her realize the growing family needs help.

“They all need clothes, food and lots of support,” she said. “Although there are many babies all over the world that could use more food and more clothing, sending donations back to Uganda with Moses is one way that UW students can have a direct impact on one family that needs all the support they can get right now.”

[Reach reporter Shannon O’Hara at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]