In a curious incident at West Bengal’s Burdwan Medical College and Hospital, nine pairs of twins were born in 24 hours, between Tuesday and Wednesday.

“On average, twins are born for every 80 births that take place in the hospital,” said superintendent Tapas Ghosh.

Except for one, all the babies had caesarean births. “There were 18 babies born from Tuesday to Wednesday within 24 hours. Seven are boys and eleven are girls,” he added.

“This is the rarest of rare incidents… but five of the babies have some critical problems and they were shifted to the intensive care unit,” Ghosh said. Apart from the Burdwan district, their mothers had come from Howrah, Hooghly and Jhargram.

Head of the gynaecology department Malay Sarkar said, “As Burdwan Medical College is a referral hospital, many critical patients come here for treatment. In the same way, our department carries out many critical deliveries. Our nurses, technicians and junior doctors are equipped and did very well.”

The department facilitates at least fifty deliveries on average everyday, he added. On Wednesday, including the nine pairs of twins, “69 babies were born.”

Another doctor of the gynaecology department Supratik Basu said, “The twins have satisfactory body weight, from 2 kg to 2.3 kg. We are very happy.”

Krishna Nayek, who gave birth to twins Lakshmi and Saraswati on the day of Lakshmi puja, said, “We are grateful to the doctors who cared for me.”