Islamabad: A young woman gave birth to quintuplets – two girls and three boys – at the Lady Aitcheson Hospital in Pakistani, officials at the facility announced on Thursday.

Komal Shehzad, 22, who lives in a rural area of Punjab, was admitted to the hospital and gave birth to five children. They were normally delivered and are in good health, said the hospital’s medical superintendent Dr Sameena Nasreen.

It was the first time in the hospital’s history that quintuplets were born and the hospital welcomed the children, she said. “We are very happy. The hospital staff is celebrating the births of the children and giving their best wishes to the couple,” she said. The babies would be kept in the incubators for a few days, she added.

Shehzad is a resident of Mandi Faizabad in Nankana Sahib district and used to visit hospital frequently.

“The birth of the quintuplets did not only bring joy to the family, but doctors. The medics were hugely relieved as they feared for the health of the mother and the babies. Multiple pregnancies can be highly risky,” she added.

“It is an honour for us that the public’s confidence is increasing in state-owned facilities,” she said.

“The family belonged to a lower middle class background and that was the reason that the hospital and health department bore all the expenses,” she added.

The father of the quintuplets Shehzad Ahmed told the media that he was happy with the arrival of five kids to his family. “I cannot thank God enough for this blessing.”

He said Mandi Faizabad, where he lives, is 40 kilometres away from the Lady Aitcheson Hospital. Therefore, he decided to hospitalise his wife a day before her due date. “The hospital made all the arrangements for the safe delivery of the children. In 2013, a woman in Peshawar and another woman in Sialkot gave birth to quintuplets.