Rare identical quadruplets born in Australia - BBC

What the report says

BBC News reports that a woman in Australia has delivered rare naturally conceived identical quadruplets at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. The four girls were born by caesarean section on 14 July at 28 weeks and four days. The hospital identified them as monozygotic quadruplets, meaning they developed after one fertilised egg divided into four embryos.

The mother, 34-year-old Jenitar Na’amoana, and her husband Jortham already have four children, and the hospital said the pregnancy came as an immense shock to the family. Dr Alexa Bendall, a maternal foetal medicine specialist and obstetrician who cared for Na’amoana, described the pregnancy as extremely high risk. She estimated identical quadruplets occur in about one in 15 million pregnancies and said the babies sharing a single placenta made the case especially unusual.

According to the BBC, Na’amoana was admitted as an inpatient at 25 weeks for close monitoring, with doctors hoping to reach at least 28 weeks. Bendall said the four babies were healthy at birth and are doing very well in the neonatal intensive care unit, where they are expected to remain until they reach full term. The girls have been named Emily, Harriet, Catherine and Alexa, the last in honour of Bendall.

The BBC also reported that the family’s older children are aged between one and 10. Na’amoana has started an online fundraiser to help buy a vehicle with at least 10 seats, and the campaign had raised more than A$37,000 at the time of the report. Doctors cited by the BBC say naturally conceived quadruplets overall are extremely rare, with estimated odds of about one in 700,000 births.