Identical Quadruplets!
Categories: Newborns, Babies, Pregnancy & Birth
Okay, so quadruplets might not seem like such a big deal these days. Even quadruplets born without any fertility treatments aren't completely unheard of. What does make the Jepp four an extremely rare bunch is the fact that they are identical quads. Karen Jepp, of Calgary, Alberta, gave birth to the four girls last Sunday at a hospital in Great Falls, Montana.Identical quadruplets are actually extremely rare. The chance of having a set is about one in thirteen million; there are about fifty documented sets according to medical literature. The parents, Karen and J.P. Jepp, also have a two-year-old son, Simon. The four girls, who ranged from 2 pounds, 6 ounces to 2 pounds, 15 ounces at birth, are all doing well and breathing without ventilators. They were born after thirty-one weeks and three days of gestation.
Interestingly, the Jepps drove more than 300 miles to get to the hospital in Montana because the hospitals in Calgary were all full. Our congratulations go out to the happy -- and suddenly much bigger -- family!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ethel 8-17-2007 @ 12:03PM
I am so glad they made it over the border!
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BabyLove77 8-17-2007 @ 3:36PM
I'm glad that all involved are healthy and happy. Pardon my ignorance but how can you tell that premature infants are all identical? Isn't it possible for them to hcnage so dramatically that they end up not being identical but similar?
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Jen 8-17-2007 @ 5:15PM
You would likely know they were identical from the ultrasounds - based on placenta(s), egg sac(s), and membranes. Identical is identical - they either all have the same genes or they don't, so I don't get the "similar" thing (they're all siblings, so they're going to share genetic "similarities"). I'm sure it's based off of DNA testing (which could have already taken place), not on how they look.
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Future Dad 9-10-2007 @ 5:29PM
Identical babies share the same sac during the pregnancy. Fraternal babies (twins, trips, quads, etc) that aren't identical, each have their own sac.
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PRWins 8-31-2007 @ 10:17AM
Identical quadruplets means that they all came from one fertilized egg that split 4 times.... as opposed to 4 different fertilized eggs (fraternal). (They do not decide "identical" or "fraternal" solely on appearance!)
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