File Photo (qianlong.com)

A 30-year-old woman from China's Hubei province recently found out she was pregnant with quintuplets, Beijing Times reported Thursday. She finally accepted an embryo reduction operation for the sake of her and her babies’ health.

Suffering from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), an endocrine system disorder among women of reproductive age, the woman surnamed Zhang had been unable to get pregnant. After treatment, she successfully had a natural pregnancy before the Spring Festival, but was later found to be carrying quintuplets.

Out of the consideration of her health, doctors performed fetus reduction for her and only left two embryos in her womb as they are separately located above the other three near the cervix.

According to Zhang’s doctor Jin Lei, also director of Reproductive Center in Wuhan Tongji Hospital, multiple pregnancies can cause great danger to both mothers and babies.

It could lead to miscarriage, premature birth, postpartum bleeding and other obstetric complications or twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, Jin added.

It is said that the risk of twin pregnancy is 20 times higher than that of the singleton pregnancy, while with triplet or multiple pregnancy the risk is 400 times higher.