Triplets occur in about 1 in 4,000 naturally conceived pregnancies… but Hannah Kersey’s triplets are one in 25 million. And that’s because Hannah Kersey is a one in a million woman herself.
Kersey was born with a rare condition called uterus didelphys , meaning that she actually has two wombs instead of one. This is a defect which is thought to affect just 0.1 to 0.5 percent of the population. In fact, many women don’t even know they have the condition. Often, it’s only when women have multiple miscarriages, or a history of premature delivery, that the condition discovered, as those are two frequent complications that arise from uterus dudelphys. Women who have this condition have a 20 percent chance of premature labor and a 30 percent chance of miscarriage, as compared to the general population, who have a less than 3 percent risk depending upon their age.
Hannah Kersey’s doctors weren’t even sure either of her wombs would be able to carry a child at all, so it was something of a shock when Kersey and her partner, Mitch Faulkner, found out they were having triplets .
The triplets were formed when two eggs, one in each of Kersey’s womb, were simultaneously fertilized by two sperm. Then one of the eggs split into two, creating identical twins in one womb, while the other womb carried a third baby, resulting in the miracle triplets.
All three of the triplets were girls – Grace and her sisters, identical twins Ruby and Tilly. The girls were born seven weeks premature, and delivered via c-section. Each one of the triplets weighed under 3 pounds: Grace weighed in at 2 pounds 13 ounces, Ruby at 2 pounds 6 ounces, and Tilly, the smallest, weighed in at a mere 2 pounds even. The triplet girls had to stay in the hospital until strong enough to go home, which took about 9 weeks. Despite being seen as “miracle” triplets, mom Hannah Kersey says they are like any other happy, healthy babies. As she told BBC News , the triplets are “three lovely and incredible children, all with very different personalities.”
There have been other cases of two babies born with Kersey’s rare condition of uterus didelphys, but this is the first known case of a woman with that condition having triplets.
According to Dr. Manny of Fox News , Hannah Kersey and her triplets are what he calls “a successful trifecta in obstetrics: 1 medical anomaly, 2 uteruses and 3 healthy babies.”
But for Hannah Kersey and her partner, Mitch, the triplets aren’t anything more than their three beloved daughters. As Kersey said, “We were just so thankful that they were healthy and well. It was more than we could have hoped for.”
[Images via The New York Post ]