A woman in her early 20s gave birth to sextuplets in Bahrain in June. The three boys and three girls were delivered at 25 weeks gestation. Dr. Amal Hassani, head of obstetrics at Salmaniya Medical Complex, called on pharmacies, consumer organizations and philanthropic groups to help the family with financial expenses, such as formula, diapers and clothes, but sadly, all the sextuplets have passed away due to extreme prematurity. Find out more about the sextuplets from several articles:
After 81 years, it can still be difficult to tell Doris, Alice and Gladys apart. Britain’s oldest triplets say, at times, even their mother Elise had trouble determining who was who. The sisters, who are all widows, live in near-identical houses. Apart from wedding portraits, you won’t find any pictures in their homes that don’t include the trio. Learn more about the triplets.
Qualan Evans, 13, of Tennessee, drowned in June while visiting relatives stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Evans, a triplet, struggled in deep water at a state park near the military base. He had recently finished school at North Gulfport 8th Grade. Read more.
On January 24, Reginald and Keisha Hird of Portmore, St. Catherine welcomed four baby girls. Life has been busy as the couple cares for Ruthann-Belle, Isabelle, Gabrielle and Annabelle. As busy as she is, Keisha has started a family diary in conjunction with a local newspaper, to give readers a glimpse at what life is like with quadruplets. Read Keisha’s diary.
Eric and Jodie Bolin are still trying to come to terms with their newfound celebrity status in Freshwater, Australia. Since the birth of their triplet girls, the family has received messages of congratulations and well wishes from complete strangers. Gwen, Lois and Tess were born at 34 weeks gestation. They join older sisters Tori and Brooke. Learn more about the Bolin triplets.
Cori Vance, of Bellevue, Nebraska, is finding out how strong a family bond can be. She’s mom to triplet girls and a younger son and separating them can be tricky. Sara, Christine and Lindsey are getting ready to enter kindergarten, but if Vance tries to talk to them about being in separate classes, hysterics ensue. The strong bond envelopes their brother, Daniel, too. When he came home from the hospital, the girls instructed all visitors to wash their hands and speak quietly around the baby. Read more about the Vance family.
Discovery Health recently aired a program called “Quads With Two Moms.” The piece told the story of Karen Wesolowski and Martha Padgett. The California couple wanted children together and went through several unsuccessful rounds of invitro fertilization using Wesolowski’s eggs. Eventually, each woman went through IVF at the same time using Padgett’s embryos. Both became pregnant with two babies. Find out how the couple copes with their new (and hectic) roles as moms to four babies.
Surviving quadruplets in Nigeria have garnered the attention of people throughout the country, including the first lady of Ebonyi State and the wife of the state Governor, who both gave cash donations to the family. Comfort Akachukwu gave birth to the babies in June at Federal Medical Center. Doctors said one of the babies died in the womb. Since the birth, people have been lining up to catch a glimpse of the babies. Chief Medical Director Dr. Paul Olisaemeka Ezeonu says the birth is the first of its kinds since FMC opened shortly after World War II. Learn more about the surviving quadruplets.
Melanie Lee says it’s hard for her son Sean, 14, to make friends because of his autism. Yet the Pennsylvania teen has found three fast friends in Josh, Zach and Danny Over. The nine-year-old triplets don’t mind when Sean wants to rub their heads, his signature mode of bonding and are always up for a trip to Sean’s favorite hangout: Chuck E. Cheese. Besides, as Zach sums it up, “he’s nice. “He’s not mean.” Lee credits the trio for helping Sean learn to swim and says the triplets are Sean’s best friends. Read more about the friendship.
The show “Jon and Kate Plus 8” has many people buzzing. The TLC show follows Jon and Kate Gosselin as they raise 7-year-old twins and 3-year-old sextuplets. The family recently agreed to answer the questions “everyone wants to ask.” During the show Kate addressed misconceptions about multiple births. On NBC, the “Today Show” featured a segment with the Masche family. Brian and Jenny Masche are the parents of sextuplets Savannah, Cole, Grant, Molli, Bailey and Blake. After enduring months of bed rest and surviving cardiac arrest after the birth of the babies, Jenny vowed to run a marathon by the time the babies turned one. She completed the race in May, less than two weeks before the sextuplets’ first birthday.
Read more about the Gosselins.
Read more about the Masches.
And how their Mom ran a marathon
Anne-Marie Mediwake, co-anchor of the Global News, gave birth to triplets last summer. Now she and her husband Darryl Konyenbelt, a Global News reporter, are finding ways to balance their careers and their babies. Mediwake recently did an interview, talking about life as a mom of multiples, and why she chose not to live in one of her favorite cities. Find out more about Ann-Marie Mediwake.
Keeping up with four children under the age of five would be a challenge for most of us. Jill Nelson, of Saugatuck, Michigan, is doing that while undergoing chemotherapy treatment. The mother of a three and a half year old and 11-month-old triplets was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Within a month of the diagnosis she had a double mastectomy and just when she recovered from surgery, she started her chemotherapy. While she has some trying days, Nelson says looking at her children gives her the strength to get through it. Read more of Nelson’s inspiring story.
After four years of trying to conceive, Julio and Marlene Medina are now parents. The Miami couple recently welcomed four babies, born four minutes apart, at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Four weeks after their birth Anahi, Julio, Tatiana and Diego were ready to go home with mom and dad. Learn more about the Medina quadruplets.
Nicole and Chris Share, of Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, were still adjusting to married life when Nicole became pregnant with triplets. Now, they’re making more adjustments as the three boys come home from the hospital. Zachary, Christopher and Gabriel were delivered in April at 31 weeks gestation. The babies sleep all together in a Pack-N-Play while Nicole “sleeps” on the couch in their one bedroom house. She said it is far too difficult to get three babies up the stairs so they all share the narrow living room. The Shares will be looking for a larger home and also two more cribs, she said, when they can afford it. Read more about the Share triplets.
At just 16-years-old, Dean Mao is Britain’s youngest father of triplets. His 17-year-old girlfriend, Siobhan Daly, recently gave birth to identical girls. Shauny, Summer and Savanah arrived nine weeks premature. Mao and Daly say they are determined to raise the babies without government assistance. Mao works as a trainee plasterer earning 30 pounds a week. Daly plans to go back to work full-time as soon as she can. The new family will be moving in with Daly’s mother. Read more.
Guy and Emma Gagen recently welcomed identical triplet boys. The Mildenhall couple says while Archie, Henry and Baxter are medically identical, they have no trouble telling the boys apart. Family and friends have been helping around the clock to feed the boys so their parents can get some sleep. Find out more about the Gagen triplets.
A Winnipeg mother will face a rare third trial in the death of one of her infant triplets. Michelle Camire is accused of killing her three-month-old son in October 2004. A jury hearing Camire’s second trial found itself unable to reach a verdict recently on whether the 27-year-old is guilty of manslaughter. Camire’s first trial, held last May in Winnipeg, also ended in a deadlock.
The grandmother of newborn triplets in Tembisa is concerned for their health and safety. Luwiza Nxabase says the babies, a boy and two girls, were born prematurely after their mother fell on her stomach while fleeing mob violence in Tembisia. Nxabase currently lives in a shelter with other refugees, and she is afraid the facility will be too cold and crowded for the babies. Despite her concerns, she says she is happy that her daughter has been blessed with triplets and knows the babies will be taken care of. Learn more about the triplets.
A father of triplets in Liberia is calling on his government and fellow Liberians to help his children. Waka George’s fiancé Mame Koyo gave birth to the babies a few weeks ago. The couple has four other children and George is concerned about how he will feed his family. George recently quit his job and has been notified by the Liberian government that the family will need to vacate the building in which they lived. Read more about Waka George’s plea for help.
A group of twins ride the subway as a mirror image of each other to see how long it takes for riders to notice. Check out the video.
Pawnee City Memorial Hospital in Nebraska hasn’t had an unscheduled birth for 10 years and has only one crib. Things got interesting in May when Bridget Gyhra was rushed to the hospital by ambulance to deliver her triplets. Gyhra was supposed to deliver the babies about 90 minutes away at St. Elizabeth in Lincoln, but she went into labor seven weeks early. While an ambulance took her to Pawnee City, another ambulance full of nurses raced from Lincoln to assist with the birth. More nurses came by medical helicopter. Local nurses and doctors also rushed to the rural hospital to stabilize Gyhra and keep her from delivering before the other teams arrived. Breonna, Denielle and Ericca Gyhra weighed in at just under four pounds each. Learn more about the excitement surrounding the birth of the Gyhra triplets.
Nelly and Fredericks Itula of Nigeria tried for years to have a baby and had virtually given up hope. Then in December, when Nelly was visiting a sister in Maryland she became sick. A visit to the doctor showed she was pregnant. At the time doctors thought she was carrying twins, but a few months later they discovered she was pregnant with quadruplets. Doctors ordered her to stay in the U.S. until the delivery to avoid a 15-hour flight home. The Itulas recently welcomed Frederick, Paul, Frieda and Pauletta and Sinai Hospital in Baltimore City. Read more about the Itula Quadruplets.
Ashley and Aaron Lindsey are the new parents of triplet girls. Serena Ruth, Hannah Grace and Savannah Skye arrived 13 weeks premature and have been fighting various complications. Both Serena and Ashley have heart murmurs and Savannah was born with a stage two brain bleed. Their community has been rallying to help the family, donating thousands of diapers and baby wipes and an air conditioner. Find out more about the Lindsey triplets.
A study published in the Malta Medical Journal shows that the unregulated and privatized administration of infertility treatment has led to an increase in the birth of triplets and quadruplets, a greater health risk to newborns. The article, “Higher order multiple pregnancy outcomes in the Maltese islands 2000-2004”, published last March, is a wake-up call for action in a field which successive governments have left unregulated. According to the report, reproductive technology (including fertility medication and in vitro fertilization) accounts for less than one percent of “singleton” births, but is used in 28-percent of triplet births and half of all quadruplet births. One of the authors of the study hopes the research will encourage governments to offer fertility treatments as part of a national health care package. Read more about the study.
Gavin, Brodin and Trevin Kuhl were born May 20 at Rockford Memorial Hospital in Illinois. Not only are the boys identical, they also survived Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome. The rare and dangerous defect caused the triplets to share blood vessels in the placenta. Parents Joshua and Kalie Kuhl of Machesney Park are now preparing to bring the boys home. Kalie plans to use a color-code system to tell the babies apart.
