A Texas woman gave birth to rare identical quadruplets amid the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Doctors dubbed the birth a ‘miracle’ as the odds of having identical quadruplets range from 1 in 11 million to 1 in 15 million.
Three years ago, Jenny and Chris Marr were ready to welcome their triplets when one day, they learned during the doctor’s appointment that they were going to have quadruplets instead of triplets. Yes, there was one more baby, and Mama Jen was shocked to learn the news.
It was indeed a miracle as both Jenny and Chris were the only children of their parents and had no family history of multiple births. The couple didn’t go through any fertility treatments either.
“It sounds horrible to say, but I don’t know if it was necessarily tears of joy. We were completely overwhelmed and, frankly, terrified,” Jenny told The Washington Post in an interview.
According to one expert medic, Dr. Brian Rinehart, “This situation is so incredibly rare that there are only about 72 documented cases of spontaneous, identical quadruplets ever.”
The Texas mum went into labor on March 15, 2020, just a day before the country went into national lockdown. She was 28.5 weeks pregnant at that time.
However, despite the unusual and stressful circumstances, the babies were delivered safely at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.
“They were all born in three minutes. It’s incredible,” Jenny told Today. “We called them our baby birds because they really looked like baby birds.”
But as the boys were born prematurely – at 28.5 weeks, they were kept in the neonatal intensive care unit at the hospital for almost ten weeks.
The babies were named Hudson, Harrison, Henry, and Hardy by Chris and Jenny.
“After their birth via C-section, three of the quadruplets needed oxygen, and they were all underweight, with first-born Harrison weighing 2 pounds 6 ounces, while the next brother, Hardy, came in at 2 pounds 10 ounces,” wrote Daily Mail.
Henry was born weighing 2 pounds 6.7 ounces, while the youngest Hudson weighed only 1 pound 15 ounces.
“It was kind of hard to wrap our head around but we’re doing good with it. It’s fun, it’s exciting,” Jenny told CBS in May 2020. “To be able to share these little miracles … it’s just been really special.”
The boys just celebrated their third birthday last month and they are perfectly healthy now.
“We confuse them from time to time,” said daddy Chris adding that the boys wear ankle bracelets so mama and daddy could tell the difference.
Speaking to Today, Jenny’s OBGYN said she had never delivered quadruplets before in her career until Jenny and Chris showed up with their miracle babies.
The doctor added that she would most probably never do such a delivery again as the chances are very ‘very rare.’
“It’s unbelievable,” said Dr. Lauren Murray. “It’ll never happen again in my career.”
The OBGYN even jokingly told Jenny that she should buy a few lottery tickets after the arrival of their babies since they were speaking of miracles.
“I told the mother to go buy a few lottery tickets because those are the kinds of odds we’re dealing with. What a miracle it was,” added Dr. Murray.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Sources: The Washington Post – Today – CBS
