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Woman Delivers Two Sets of Identical Twins on One Day

Thursday, February 21st, 2013

A Texas mother gave birth to quadruplets — two sets of identical twins — in a single day earlier this month, something that only had a one-in-70-million chance of occurring.  The Today Show has more on the couple, who conceived the quadruplets without any reproductive assistance:

They were born at 31 weeks by Cesarean section to Tressa [Molvanto], who is 36, The Woman’s Hospital of Texas in Houston says.

The couple had been trying for one brother or sister to keep their little boy Memphis, now 2 years old, company.  At 10 weeks, they learned she was having twins. But when the couple went in for Tressa’s 12 week check-up, they learned she was carrying not two, but four babies.

“If I wasn’t already on the table lying down, I’m pretty sure I would have hit the floor,” Tressa told TODAY.

Manuel’s immediate reaction was jubilation.

“The first thing I said was ‘Home run!’ and then I started jumping up and down,” he said.

The Montalvo’s doctor says this delivery is a very rare event.

“The incidence of spontaneous quadruplets is somewhere of the order of 1 in 500,000,” said Dr. Brian Kirshon, a specialist in maternal and fetal medicine at Houston Perinatal Associates. “And then if you take two sets of identical twins in the quadruplet set, the incidence must be one in many, many millions. It’s an extremely rare occurence.”

Image: Quadruplets, via Shuttterstock

Quadruplets Born to Cancer Patient

Friday, October 12th, 2012

A Colorado couple has welcomed quadruplets–one boy and three girls, two of whom are identical twins, which is an unusual piece of news in and of itself.  But adding to the story of Ashley and Andy Adams is the fact that four months into her pregnancy, which was the result of infertility treatments, Ashley was diagnosed with Stage 1 thyroid cancer.  CNN has more:

Multiple-birth pregnancies are often complicated, said Ashley’s doctor, Julie Scott, a high-risk obstetrician at the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora. As a result, Ashley wanted to wait until after the babies were born at 30 weeks to undergo cancer surgery. She delivered one boy and three girls, two of them identical twins, on August 26.

Her surgery, a seven-hour procedure that included a thyroidectomy and lymph node removal, took place a few weeks later and was successful.

Scott has seen thousands of patients, many with higher-order (three or more fetuses) pregnancies. She said it is not uncommon to diagnose cancer in pregnant women because that’s often when they have their first extensive health examinations. What’s scary is that the cancer may have been lying untreated — and spreading — for years.

“Ashley has probably had that cancer for several years, and it went undiagnosed, probably because with her young age,” Scott said. “The doctors missed the warning signs.”

Image: Pregnant belly, via Shutterstock