Conceiving and giving birth to quadruplets is not a new thing these days. However, there are not many quadruplets around the world that are born from a single embryo.
A British couple is making medical history by welcoming one of the first sets of quadruplets to be born from a single embryo. Christine, a nurse from Brinsworth, gave birth to four daughters named Darcy (2lbs), Caroline (2lbs 3oz), Elisha (2lbs 14oz) and Alexis (3lbs), March 5, between 2:45 p.m. and 2:49 p.m. at Jessops Hospital in Sheffield.
However, for Christine and husband Justin Clark, conceiving and having a baby the natural way was not an easy affair. Tired after nine long years of continuous efforts to have a baby, they decided to go for in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, an artificial method adopted by couples who experience difficulties in conceiving naturally.
During the treatment, a single embryo was implanted in Christine's womb at Care Fertility in Sheffield. To their surprise, after three weeks, the couple learnt that Christine was carrying four babies and not one.
"When we found out we were having four babies, I just couldn't believe it. I was speechless and to be honest, I didn't believe it until I saw them for myself," Christine said, in a report released by The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust.
However, pregnancy was not an easy affair for the nurse. Like the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton, Christine also experienced a severe form of morning sickness known as hyperemesis gravidarum almost throughout her pregnancy.
At 24 weeks, due to some breathing problems, Christine was rushed to the emergency care and remained under medical supervision until the 30th week, when she gave birth to her four babies via elective C-section.
According to health practitioners, the birth of the quadruplets from a single embryo is one of the rarest incidents they have come across in their medical life.
"I have been working in IVF for over 20 years and this is the first case I am aware of where a single embryo transferred resulted in a quadruplet pregnancy," Adel Shaker, the Medical Director at CARE Sheffield who treated Christine, told NHS, U.K. "I have seen two embryos transferred resulting in triplets and a single embryo resulting in twins. Even those pregnancies are very unlikely. Previous IVF quadruplets have seen babies from both sexes (boys and girls) and were reported after transferring two embryos at least. This is to my knowledge, the first time a quadruplet pregnancy is reported after a single embryo transfer and all the babies are of the same sex."
Currently, the 'miracle babies' are at the care of the Special Care Baby Unit at Rotherham Hospital. The babies are expected to be discharged by June.
However, the new parents are now more concerned about another problem - bringing up their little ones with their limited income.
"It was a very emotional time for us as we'd been trying for nine years to have one child and had no luck. Now we were going to have four. We were happy, but we were also worried about the logistics of how we were going to bring them up," Justin, who is a lorry driver, said.
Miracle births have been part of medical history since time immemorial. In 2013, a Texas couple Tressa and husband Manuel Montalvo Jr. welcomed quadruplets, two sets of identical twin boys, said to be one in 70 million, on Valentine's Day.
In 2011, Miranda and Josh Crawford welcomed their two sets of identical twins from two embryos implanted as part of IVF treatment.
In September 2011, footballer Danny Hollands, who plays as midfielder for Swindon Town, and wife Natalie had their triplets - three daughters named Sofia, Annabella and Mia. Two of them resulted from two embryos implanted as part of IVF treatment and one was conceived naturally the night before the implantation.
