Ren Quanhong could hardly hold back his tears when narrating what had happened to him after he became father again of four babies simultaneously this September.

"I was rejoiced and felt relieved; mother was safe and all the four babies survived the four babies were all safe," Ren, a 28-year-old peasant from Xincai County of central China's Henan Province, recalled after he went through the most difficult hours during his wife's childbirth.

Quadruplet Arrivals

Ren's worries had stayed ever since September 10 when he and his wife Yang Huaer, 30, travelled about 240 kilometers in a bus to Zhengzhou, the provincial capital, for better medical treatment at local doctors' advice.

Yang gave birth to the quadruplets, two boys and two girls, through normal delivery at Henan Province Maternity and Child Care Hosptial on September 15, about four weeks ahead of full gestation.

The babies, named by hospital as Baby No.1, No.2, No. 3 and No.4, weighed between 1,500 and 1,950 grams each when they came to the world.

The couple said they expected the quadruplets about five months into pregnancy during an examination and the conception happened without the use of fertility.

"I dreamed about what my nurslings look like," said Yang, the mother who did not see the faces of the quadruplets until two weeks after their arrival. She was in a daze at the operating table after the delivery and the babies were sent immediately to an asepsis wards and watched closely by doctors and nurses.

Doctors said it is rare for a woman to conceive quadruplets naturally and the odds for such conception without the use of fertility are about 1 in 600,000 pregnancies. However, the use of fertility drugs such as clomiphene, which are used when the cause of infertility is lack of released ova, sometimes led to a rise in the incidence of multiple births.

Bearing Debts; Helping Hands

However, the couple's joyance ebbed fast and turned into as a series of troubles, especially the debts, began to emerge.

"Doctors told us the quadruplets were in good health but they can't leave hospital unless we pay off all the fees owed to the hospital," Ren said during an interview on Monday, almost two weeks after the delivery.

To prepare for the delivery in Zhengzhou, Ren, already father of a 8-year-old daughter, brought on all the money he could raisedat home -- 8,000 yuan (US$1,000), 5,000 yuan of which was borrowed and 3,000 yuan was scraped up through his laboring in cities.

"The life back home has been difficult already," Ren said, "because many of our field plots were flooded this summer and we could harvest very little."

Ren said after he signed an IOU of 11,400 yuan (US$1,400) to the hospital then his wife and three healthy quadruplets were allowed to leave.

Mounting Criticism

Observers said the experience of the couple and their quadruplets just mirrored China's struggling medicare system, which is widely criticized for soaring medicine prices, failure to provide insured health care to its large number of peasants, who make up most of the country's population.

"It is by no means an isolated case for Ren to default the hospital's treating fees," said a deputy to the city legislature Zhao Junwei, "it is social problem."

The country's public hospitals have been under mounting criticism for their excessive emphasis on profits, leading to the skyrocketting charges for going to a hospital, which is usually too high for patients to afford.

Nearly 50 percent of Chinese won't go to see a doctor when they are sick because it is too costly, according to a survey published by the Ministry of Health in 2004.

The survey also showed most of China's 900 million peasants have not had medical insurance though the growth of their income had long fallen behind the pace of medicine price increases.

For rural infants like Ren's quadruplets, health insurance for children still remain a distant concept in China's vast countryside.

"I don't have too much confidence in raising my children," Ren said, "It takes money when it comes to bringing up a child, the milk, the clothes. I now even have a cent."

"To seek assistance, I have contacted local township government. And they said 'Sorry, we can't help because we don't have the rules.'"

(Xinhua News Agency September 30, 2005)