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Published January 13, 2015
One Wales woman has defied the odds and given birth to identical triplets, the odds of which range from 60,000- and 200 million-to-one, Medical Daily reported.
Eight weeks into her pregnancy, Karen Gilbert feared she was having a miscarriage after she started to feel pain in her stomach. However, doctors informed her later that the pain was caused by her three fetuses fighting for space and food, as they all shared a single placenta.
Physicians initially diagnosed Gilbert with twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) – only in her case, it was considered triplet-to-triplet. With TTTS pregnancies, the identical fetuses must share the same space and resources in the womb, and sometimes the placenta will deliver a disproportionate amount of nourishment to one fetus over the other. These types of pregnancies can have a high mortality rate of 60 to even 100 percent.
Due to this risk, doctors told Gilbert that she would likely have to sacrifice at least one child in order to save the others. But Gilbert refused to give up, and she successfully gave birth to all three babies via cesarean section two months early at Royal Gwent Hospital on August 2.
“They all grew and fought so quickly it was practically ripping Karen’s muscles apart,” said Ian Gilbert, Karen’s husband. “But we couldn’t consider termination; they were our babies. We were scanned every week to make sure they were growing fine.”
The triplets – Paige, Madison and Ffion – are all healthy and growing normally.
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https://www.foxnews.com/health/woman-gives-birth-to-identical-triplets-defies-overwhelming-odds