Overview
- The four daughters — Emily, Harriet, Alexa and Catherine — were born by caesarean at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital on July 14 at 28 weeks and four days.
- Doctors confirmed the babies came from a single fertilised egg and shared one placenta, a configuration clinicians estimate at about one in 15 million and that raises serious fetal and maternal risks.
- Medical teams admitted the mother for close monitoring in the third trimester, used multiple neonatal teams at delivery, and say all four infants are stable and remain in the hospital’s NICU.
- The parents already had four children aged between one and ten and have launched a GoFundMe to pay for a larger vehicle, equipment and extra medical and living costs as they adjust to a family of eight.
- Clinicians and hospital staff call the case exceptionally rare and of academic interest, and they expect the babies to remain under specialist care until they grow closer to full term.