One of the rarest births ever recorded worldwide took place in Australia, where a 34-year-old woman gave birth to identical quadruplets, who were delivered naturally, following a pregnancy that doctors described as extremely high-risk.

According to the BBC, Jenitar Na’amoana gave birth via C-section on July 14, after 28 weeks and four days of gestation, four girls, who originated from a single fertilized egg that split into four embryos. These are monozygotic identical quadruplets, a phenomenon estimated to occur only once in approximately 15 million pregnancies.

Doctors noted that the case was even more remarkable because the four embryos shared the same placenta, a situation they described as unprecedented and extremely dangerous for both the mother and the babies.

The 34-year-old woman and her husband, Jortham, are already parents to four children aged one to ten, and, as they reported, were speechless when they learned they were expecting quadruplets. The pregnancy was closely monitored by a specialized medical team, and the mother was admitted to the hospital starting at 25 weeks to remain under constant observation.

The doctors believed that if the pregnancy reached 28 weeks, it would already be a great success. In the end, the four girls were born at 28 weeks and four days, without any serious complications.

The newborns were named Emily, Harriet, Catherine, and Alexa, with the last name being a tribute to the obstetrician and specialist in fetal-maternal medicine, Dr. Alexa Bental, who had been monitoring the pregnancy from the very beginning. She described the parents’ choice as “a beautiful gesture that honors her,” expressing her satisfaction that both the mother and the infants avoided all the serious complications that usually accompany such a rare pregnancy.

The four infants are being treated in the neonatal intensive care unit, where they will remain until they reach the gestational age of a full-term infant. According to the doctors, their health is progressing very well.

Meanwhile, the family has launched an online fundraising campaign, as they now need a vehicle with at least ten seats to get around. The initiative has already raised more than 37,000 Australian dollars.

In a message, the mother noted that, despite her immense gratitude for the safe birth of her four daughters, caring for four newborns at the same time presents challenges the family could never have imagined.

Experts point out that naturally conceived quadruplets are extremely rare in and of themselves, with a probability of about one in 700,000 births, while this specific case of identical quadruplets originating from a single fertilized egg ranks among the most unusual on record.

Source: Protothema.gr