An Australian woman has given birth to identical quadruplet girls after a pregnancy doctors described as incredibly rare, reports The Associated Press.
Jenitar Sau Na’amoana (34), who already had four children, delivered the babies at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in Queensland state.
“We are very excited to be able to care for this amazing little family, a big family now,” said Dr Alexa Bendall, a maternal foetal medicine specialist who cared for Na’amoana.
The babies were conceived naturally and came from one fertilised egg that split into four, “which was incredible”, Bendall said.
“We think the figures are probably around one in 15m for a case like this – four identical babies – to be spontaneously conceived,” she added. “We don’t think it’s ever happened in Australia.”
Overall, experts say, the chance of conceiving quadruplets naturally is only one in 700 000; most are conceived with the assistance of medical technology.
Hospital staff said Na’amoana and her husband hadn’t planned to have more children and were quite surprised when she became pregnant with the quadruplets.
She had faced a high risk of complications, especially given the foetuses shared one placenta. In general, being pregnant with any multiple foetuses puts a woman at increased risk of problems like preterm birth, miscarriage and birth defects.
Na’amoana was monitored by a large medical team at the hospital, from 10 weeks’ gestation, and was admitted as an inpatient at 25 weeks so she could be monitored. She delivered the babies by Caesarean section on 14 July.
“The fact that we’ve got four beautiful, healthy babies born at 28 weeks and four days is incredible,” Bendall said.
The babies are doing well in the neonatal intensive care unit.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Successful birth of quadruplets for Mpumalanga mother
Midwife delivers quadruplets at Musina clinic