Jenitar Na'amoana delivers rare, naturally conceived identical quadruplets in what may be an Australian first.
Jenitar Na'amoana has given birth to four identical daughters in a rare medical event described as a "one in 15 million" pregnancy. The 34-year-old mother from Brisbane, Australia, delivered the monozygotic quadruplets via caesarean section on July 14 at 28 weeks and four days. The babies, named Emily, Harriet, Catherine, and Alexa, were born from a single fertilized egg that split into four embryos. The pregnancy was classified as extremely high-risk, leading to Jenitar Na'amoana being admitted to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital at 25 weeks for monitoring. Dr. Alexa Bendall, the maternal foetal medicine specialist who managed the pregnancy, noted that while identical quadruplets are rare, sharing the same placenta is nearly unheard of. The newborns are currently thriving in the neonatal intensive care unit. The family, which already has four children aged one to 10, has launched a fundraising campaign to purchase a 10-passenger van to accommodate their growing household of eight children.