For Khan and her husband Junaid Ahmed, it was a dream shattered - for the third time. Since their wedding five years ago, Zaida had given birth twice - one of their daughters was a still-born while the other died soon after birth."Zaida was rendered weak by these two deliveries and got pregnant soon after. She never regained her health. All through her pregnancy, she could barely eat anything," said her cousin. "Having taken away two infants in the past, we thought God had been kind enough to bless the couple with five children at once.

The babies were so beautiful. At least one should have survived," rues Zaida's older sisterSahida Khatun Khan.Originally from Uttar Pradesh, Zaida and Junaid Ahmed live in Bhiwandi. When Zaida started keeping unwell during the fourth month of her pregnancy, they shifted to her sister Sahida's place in Badlapur. "Following a sonography, doctors told us there were four foetuses. Even sonographies conducted later showed four foetuses when actually there were five. In any case, doctors at Badlapur said they cannot handle the delivery and advised us to shift her to Cama hospital," said Zaida's father Mohammed Syed."She was admitted to Cama hospital in March itself as we didn't want to take any risk. Her condition is stable now but we have shifted her to G T hospital which has has better facilities," says Dr Waghmare, Deputy Superintendent of the hospital.