Quad a handful! UK medical first as little record breakers Amelia, Sofia, Aston and Roman are all conceived naturally – from FOUR separate eggs
Like all quadruplets, these four babies are a rare delight.
Amelia, Sofia, Aston, and Roman are exceedingly unusual – and likely the only quads in the UK – even within the quadruple species.
Martin, a 28-year-old hairdresser, and her husband had lost some hope of adding to their family when she was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
But a few months later, Martin found out she was expecting, and she received the biggest surprise of her life at a prenatal scan. “‘The sonographer was scanning me for ages and kept peering at the screen,” she said. Then Martin was told to expect four babies. “I just burst into tears. I didn’t take it in at first.”
Miss Martin was admitted to St Mary’s Hospital, Manchester, at 27 weeks and the quads were born by caesarean section three weeks later, in February. Sofia weighed 3lb 11oz, Roman 2lb 13oz, Aston 3lb 2oz and Amelia 3lb 7oz.
In most cases of naturally conceived quadruplets, at least one pair of the siblings comes from one egg that splits into two during the earliest stages of development. But in Martin’s case, the quads were conceived from four different eggs.
Miss Martin, who has been supported by the Helping Hands project run by the Twins and Multiple Births Association (Tamba), said: ‘I was so relieved when they were all born safe and well.
‘When I saw them lying there in their cots, I couldn’t believe it. They all have different personalities and come from various eggs.
The odds of natural quads are about 700,000 to 1, but experts said they could not estimate the probability of a non-identical set.
