Australian Mother Of 12 Gives Birth To Quintuplets

An Australian mother of 12 naturally conceived and then gave birth to quintuplets, in a Melbourne hospital. The odds of conceiving quintuplets naturally is approximately one in about 55 million, according to Monash Medical Centre doctors. One of the babies, a little girl, unfortunately died shortly before the woman, 48, gave birth.

Two baby boys and three baby girls were delivered by caesarean section with the aid of 30 medical specialists, early Tuesday. The family of 16, who have not been identified, is now one of the largest families in the state of Victoria, the Daily Mail reports.

Both mommy and the four remaining babies are reportedly doing well. The babies will continue to receive around the clock medical supervision at the Monash Medical Centre neonatal intensive care unit until doctors feel they area are prepared for life at home with their 12 older siblings.

The last time five babies born at the same time in the Victoria area was in 1980; none of the babies survived. In 2011, a lesbian couple from Brisbane successfully conceived and gave birth to five babies with the help of a sperm donor. Melissa Keevers and Rosemary Nolan are the parents of Abby, Evia, Eireann, Noah, and Charlie. The babies weighed less than one kilogram and were born 13 weeks’ premature. There are reportedly about one dozen sets of quintuplets currently living in the country, according to The Australian.

Although the birth of multiple babies is unusual, the recent Victoria birth is not the only unconventional delivery room occurrence in recent years. In 2008 Kim Hefer of Little Paxton, made headlines when she gave birth to two sets of twin boys on the same day – four years apart. Jeanette Fardelin of Liverpool, used a deep freeze IVF procedure to conceive five children on the same day; but chose to deliver the babies over the course of the next six years. The last two of the babies were born in July.