QUADS BORN IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29713, 5 January 1962, Page 2

QUADS BORN IN BRITAIN

‘Flabbergasted’ Father (N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copy rig ht) LONDON. Jan. 3. Mrs Phoebe Meacham gave birth to quadruplets—two boys and two girls—today while hospital officials anxiously tried to trace her husband. But her 28-year-old husband, Ronald, was out rabbit shooting with his brothers unaware of the drama in the maternity ward of Southend’s Rochford Hospital, the “Daily Express” reported. Mr Meacham was needed at the hospital to sign a certificate allowing a caesarian operation, but Mrs Meacham finally signed the paper herself. A friend hurried to tell him of the arrival of the quadruplets when he got back home from shooting with his brothers. He said later: “I was flabbergasted. I knew nothing of what was going on. When I left the hospital on Tuesday I was told they would not be arriving until January 18.” The birth was described by a doctor as “quite easy and normal,” the paper said. The two girls each weighed 31b Boz, one boy weighed 31b 3Joz, and the smallest 21b 7Joz. A spokesman at the hospital said after the births, “the mother and quads are as well as can be expected.”