Real life
Four sisters pregnant together
couldn’t wait to tell her sisters she was pregnant! Her baby boy was due in March 2017 and would be her third baby, after seven-year-old Zayaan and threeyear-old Zaeem. Having gone off the pill for medical reasons, she and her husband Umr Gallant didn’t plan this pregnancy as much as nature simply took her course. She certainly didn’t intend to be pregnant at the same time as anyone else in her close-knit family. Kashiefah decided to let her family know via the family WhatsApp group that a new little baby was on his way – and much excitement ensued. Kashiefah has two older sisters, Mehnaaz (40) and Zulfah (36), and one younger sister, Firdous (28). Elder sister Zulfah takes up the story: “I was telling my husband, Shieraaj, that recently I was finding our oldest sister, Mehnaaz, quite closed-off and uncommunicative.” These two sisters and their mother all live in two houses on the same property, and so they see each other all the time. “I even joked with my husband that maybe, as the oldest, Mehnaaz was showing signs of early menopause,” she half-jokes. But before long, the reason for Mehnaaz’ behaviour was revealed via the family WhatsApp group: she was suffering from very bad nausea because she, too, was pregnant! “My husband and I laughed and laughed, because what had we been imagining? Something completely opposite!” Zulfah remembers. “Mehnaaz and her husband Waseem have four children, and Laeeq, her eldest, is already 18! When he found out he was getting a baby brother or sister, he was actually speechless. Aqilah is 16, then there’s a gap, Raaid is 6 and everybody including Mehnaaz herself thought two-year-old Rashiqa would be her last-born.” Mehnaaz is considered the most energetic of the sisters. “She always finds time to cook, shop, clean, and look after children, and she works at Cape Nature!” With a brood of five, she’ll need that legendary energy of hers. Luckily, mom Zubeida is close by so help is always at hand. A month later the infamous family WhatsApp group pinged once more. Oh yes, it was preggie news again! Says Zulfah: “Firdous messaged us: ‘You won’t believe it but I’m also pregnant.’ OK, so now we knew we definitely needed to get together to celebrate Firdous and Waseem’s news, but also the fact that three sisters were pregnant at the same time.” Zulfah’s husband jokingly said, “Imagine if you were also pregnant…” Zulfah dismissed the idea – her eldest was six and there was no sign of a successor yet. But of course, she was indeed also expecting. “The whole family was getting together for Guy Fawkes,” she explains. “I had found out my news about a week before that. I told my husband, today I am going to tell them all,” she remembers. “My mom was sitting inside watching TV. I said, ‘Mommy, I have something to tell you. I’m pregnant. I’m going outside to tell everyone else.’ I stepped out and shouted to gather them all: ‘Guys, I have an announcement. I’m also pregnant.’” And so, for six months between October 2016 and up to 27 March 2017, when baby Raqeeb was born, all four sisters were, incredibly, pregnant at the same time. Suddenly, the sisters were famous. “Firdous’ gynae says that it’s the first he has ever heard of four sisters being pregnant at the same time, and it’s definitely a miracle,” says Zulfah. “Everybody says we must have planned it, and when they hear we didn’t, they are amazed. We have been advised to treasure this time as it will never again be like this in our home. My mom went to a family function and she was the most famous person there. Everyone was congratulating her on the daughters being pregnant. I’m sure she felt like a celebrity!” “Mehnaaz never wants to know if she’s carrying a girl or a boy, so it will be a surprise,” says Zulfah. The other three babies are all boys, so the doctors say. Will it be a full house of boys for gran Zubeida? Zulfah has one daughter, six-yearold Tazkiya, and she was the only one of the sisters who confesses to having contemplated pregnancy again, as her first-born was getting quite old already. She’s due with her little boy on 23 June. Tazkiya has been asking for a sibling for years, although on the day the news came, she was overwhelmed and emotional about it. Now, she can’t wait anymore and regularly prods her mom’s stomach, nudging her little brother out. “She’s used to many cousins,” says Zulfah. “Now she’s finally getting her own sibling.” But baby sister Firdous is not to be outdone, and the race is on, because her baby is due on 19 June, just five days before Zulfah’s, to be a little brother to three-year-old Aneeq! So the final question mark is whether Firdous will beat Zulfah to the labour ward, or vice versa? The sisters realise how blessed they are to share such a rare journey together. “Our husbands are awesome, they’re supportive and are 100% on board,” says Zulfah. “Overall, everyone we meet, whether family, friends, colleagues or strangers, are taken by our pregnancies. I am still to hear of four or more South African sisters that were pregnant at the same time.”