Rare set of identical quadruplet girls born in Australia

An Australian woman gave birth to identical quadruplet girls, an occurrence that doctors said was extremely rare. Jenitar Sau Na’amoana, 34, delivered the babies by cesarean section last week at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in Queensland state. The quadruplets were conceived naturally, meaning they came from one fertilized egg that split into four. The pregnancy was a one-in-15-million occurrence, Dr. Alexa Bendall, a maternal fetal medicine specialist, said in a statement Tuesday.

Na’amoana “has somehow dodged every complication and risk for both herself and her babies to be here today, with four gorgeous newborn girls,” Bendall said. The babies were born at 28 weeks and four days. They were staying at the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit for now but doing extremely well, Bendall said.

In general, being pregnant with more than one baby puts the mother at increased risk for problems such as high blood pressure or miscarriage, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Na’amoana and her husband had four kids before the quadruplets and hadn’t planned on having any more children, hospital officials said. The pregnancy took them by surprise and doubled their family’s size. They named the qudruplets Emily, Harriet, Catherine, and Alexa—in honor of Dr. Bendall.