Triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, and more may seem almost commonplace now compared to years past, at least to those of us who just read about them. But they are anything but commonplace to parents who find themselves suddenly leading a large family! Until just a few decades ago, multiple conceptions were rare, and surviving children from multiple births were extremely rare. Advances in prenatal diagnosis and neonatal care have raised the odds of survival, and fertility drugs have increased the incidence of multiple pregnancies. Scientists believe another factor is the growing tendency for women to give birth at an older age, since multiples are more common in older mothers.
Triplets
Triplets occur naturally only in one of about 6400 births, but the rate has skyrocketed with the use of fertility therapies. On May 4, 2007, Kyle, Emma, and Katie Coble, ages 5, 4, and 2, were killed in a car wreck that injured their mother and grandmother. Their parents, Lori and Chris Coble couldn’t imagine life without children and opted for in-vitro fertilization a few months later. Three of the ten fertilized embryos were viable, and the Cobles insisted on implanting all three, even though their doctor preferred to use only two. The triplets were born on May first, and are said to be doing well at a hospital in Orange County, California. The two girls and a boy are named Ashley, Ellie and Jake.
Quadruplets
The Keys quadruplets were born in 1915 in Hollis, Oklahoma. Alma Keys knew something was different about her fifth pregnancy, but she didn’t know what until the four girls were born. The family turned down circus and freak show offers, but put the four on display every year at the state fair to raise money. The quadruplets were granted a full scholarship to Baylor University and graduated together in 1937.
The Fultz quadruplets were four identical girls born in 1946 in Rockingham, North Carolina. They grew up advertsing Pet Milk products. Three of the Fultz sisters died of breast cancer; the remaining sibling, Catherine Fultz Griffin, was treated for breast cancer. The News-Record of North Caroina has the story of the Fultz quads in a six-part series.
Continue reading for more quads, quints, sexts, septs, and more.
Lee and Pam Deschler of Pennsylvania kept an online diary from the time they found out they were going to have four babies at once until the children were 5 and a half. Most quadruplets are born around 29 weeks of pregnancy (39-40 weeks is normal for a single pregnancy). With the help of first-class medical supervision at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, the babies were delivered at 32 weeks and 5 days, weighing 3-4 pounds each. Reading their story gives one just a taste of how scary carrying multiple babies can be.
Karen Jepp of Calgary, Alberta bore four daughters last August, a rare instance of identical quadruplets. The babies were conceived without fertility drugs, and were delivered two months early. The odds of identical quadruplets are about one in 13 million. Less than 50 cases appear in medical records (including the Fultz quads). Karen and her husband J.P. traveled to Great Falls, Montana for the Caesarian birth, making the four girls American citizens. The quadruplets have been home a few months now, and are thriving.
Quintuplets
The Dionne sisters were the first quintuplets to survive infancy. The five identical girls were born prematurely on May 28, 1934, near Corbeil, Ontario to Elzire and her husband Oliva Dionne. The government of Ontario took custody of the girls from their parents and raised them in a specially-built facility that came to be known as Quintland. Marie, Cecile, Yvonne, Emilie, and Annette were made wards of the crown to protect them from exploitation. However, they were exploited by their new guardians. The quints lived an isolated life while Quintland saw millions of visitors (and dollars). The family regained custody when the sisters were nine years old, but they never bonded with their biological parents. They later broke off all contact with the family. The two surviving sisters, Annette and Cécile, are almost 74. An extensive history of the Dionne quints is online at Quintland. Also see videos of the Dionne quintuplets.
The Diligenti quintuplets were born in Argentina in 1943. Their parents, Italian immigrant Franco Diligenti and opera singer Ana Aversano kept the event a secret, going so far as to register the births in different districts. They were determined to shield their children from the intense publicity surrounding the Dionne family, and were, for the most part, successful. Now age 64, the Diligenti quints are the world’s oldest complete set of quintuplets.
The Fischer quintuplets were the first known set of surviving quintuplets in the US. The four girls and a boy were born on September 14th, 1963 in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Their childhood was documented in magazines and in collectible kitsch, such as dolls and calendars. As they approach 45, all the quintuplets still live in the Aberdeen area.
Sextuplets
The Dilley sextuplets were the first surviving sextuplets in the United States. The family and their medical team were prepared for quintuplets after an ultrasound detected five heartbeats. After delivering five by Caesarian section, there was still another baby underneath! The four boys and two girls will turn 15 years old on May 25th. See a video of the family.
Kate Gosselin has only been pregnant twice, but delivered eight children. Twin girls were born in 2000, followed by sextuplets in 2004. The delivery of the three boys and three girls was attended by a team of 50 doctors, nurses, and specialists in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The Gosselin family has a reality show on The Learning Channel (TLC) called John and Kate Plus 8, airing Mondays at 9PM EDT. You can read their story at the family’s website.
The Harris sextuplets of Birmingham, Alabama were born on July 7, 2002. They are the first surviving set of African-American sextuplets in the USA, all born healthy. Like the Dilleys, they were expecting quintuplets and were surprised at the sixth child. In 2005, the TV show Extreme Makeover Home Edition sent the six toddlers, along with their parents Chris and Diamond and older brother Dewayne to Walt Disney World and built them a new 5,800 square foot home.
Septuplets
Patti Frustaci was the first woman in the US to give birth to septuplets. The four boys and three girls were delivered by Caesarian section 12 weeks prematurely. One girl was stillborn, and two boys and a girl died within 19 days from hyaline membrane disease, a complication of prematurity. The three surviving infants, Richard, Patricia and Stephen were found to have developmental deficits and cerebral palsy. Sam and Patti Frustaci sued their fertility doctor and clinic and accepted a 2.7 million dollar settlement. The couple later conceived healthy twins, but the family broke up sometime afterward.
Kenny and Bobbi McCaughey produced the world’s first surviving set of septuplets on November 19, 1997. The babies were conceived with the help of fertility drugs. The McCaugheys received some negative publicity due to their decision not to have “selective reduction” performed in order to boost the survival chances of the remaining babies. The septuplets were delivered nine weeks prematurely, and two of the children have cerebral palsy. The family grants very few interview requests outside of yearly updates with Ladies Home Journal (posing here with their older sister Mikayla) and Dateline NBC, where you can see their tenth birthday report.
Octuplets
The first octuplets born in the US were the offspring of Nkem Chukwu and her husband Iyke Louis Udobi of Houston, Texas. The oldest, a girl named Ebuka was born December 8th, 1998, 15 weeks prematurely. A medical team was able to delay the other babies until their Caesarian delivery on December 20th. All the babies weighed less than two pounds. The smallest, a 10.3 ounce girl named Odera, died a week after birth. The remaining five girls and two boys are reportedly healthy at nine years old.
There have been a few cases recorded of nontuplets conceived, but no incidences of any of the children surviving.
Further Reading
List of multiple births.
The History of High-order Multiples.
Quintuplet facts.
Comments (23)
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As beautiful as all of these stories are, there enough to make me say no to ever having children ever ever in my life. lol Just the thought of having those many kids let alone at the same time makes me slightly weak in the knees. Octuplets! Geez! And I watch Jon and Kate Plus 8 . . . I think thats all that needs to be said.
posted by Phoenix on 5-6-2008 at 5:50 am
With the foster care system as inept and overloaded as it is (kids age out and never get adopted; only 2% of foster children graduate from college), people paying tens of thousands of dollars to have multiple kids seems like just another badge of reckless excess.
posted by Ira on 5-6-2008 at 6:04 am
Thanks for this article and the links to other sites that elaborated further on each set of multiples. It fascinates me that families are able to sustain such a large number of infants. The thought of having twins exhausts me – let alone septuples! I admire couples that are able to parent that number of children and still maintain their sanity.
posted by Bethany on 5-6-2008 at 10:45 am
I was stuck in the mess of traffic that happened after the truck struck the Coble family. When I found out what had happened, my heart just about broke. It was a terrible tragedy. Their community banded togther to support them during that time but I think all of Orange County (and I’m sure most of Southern California and other places where the news was shared) was with them during their loss and overjoyed at the arrival of their triplets. It’s one story that has a happy (and yet bittersweet) ending.
posted by CK on 5-6-2008 at 12:21 pm
“The quadruplets were granted a full scholarship to Baylor University and graduated together in 1937.”
Interesting, that’s the year my recently deceased Grandmother graduated from the UofT.
posted by Saskboy on 5-6-2008 at 12:58 pm
Due to the number of multiples resulting from fertility drugs, the latest public fascination regarding multiple births is whether they are “natural” or not. I understand why one would wonder about this. But I cannot understand why it is acceptable to walk up to multiples and begin quizzing them. As a twin myself, you would not believe the bizarre and invasive questions total strangers have asked me. Please–multiples may be unusual, but they are still human! Remember that, and we’ll love you. ;-)
posted by elisabeth on 5-6-2008 at 10:37 pm
In the nineties, Baylor also gave scholarships to another set of quads, Allison, Brooke, Claire, and Darcy (ABCD) Hanson. They graduated around ’97, I think. Not sure why Baylor has an obsession with quads! :-) This is the first I’ve heard of the earlier set.
posted by Amber on 5-7-2008 at 12:44 am
it probably very hard to take care of 7 kids.
posted by baby boy on 5-15-2008 at 5:03 am
How could you forget the Kienast Quints?
posted by Grandma in Illinois on 5-20-2008 at 4:13 pm
Wow.
Does anyone know if they were naturally concived, or fertility drugs were used.
i’m in a bet with my mother who seems to beleieve that no one could give quints live without fertitly drugs.
I hope to prove her wrong.
SOS.
posted by Raychel on 5-26-2008 at 2:15 pm
Were any of these lovely children enduced with fertility drugs?
My mother and i are contemplating that no one can have sets of 5 without pregnacy drugs.
By the way:
When were they invented? That may or may not help.
posted by Raychel on 5-26-2008 at 2:18 pm
Raychel, there are quintuplets that have been born without fertility drugs: the Dionne quintuplets of Canada. They were born in May of 1934.
posted by Karin on 8-4-2008 at 3:24 pm
wow thats amazing. however i feel sorry for the kids in a way, as they dont get the same love and undivided attention they would if they were born alone!
posted by baby names on 9-19-2008 at 11:56 am
thats so cool i want sixtuplets and twins!
posted by Bria-Kate on 10-22-2008 at 9:28 am
Love the Gosselins..I watch their show almost everyday on either tv or the web.♥
posted by Aliyah-Kay on 12-7-2008 at 9:09 am
Couple of thing that bother me when it comes to higher multiplies.
1)For ALL the cases that involve fertility drugs…..These people decide to turn to fertility drugs (if they don’t realize that there is a chance to have more than one they are ignorant) and have 6 babies at once and then they have their hand out for tons of freebies and help.
2)I do NOT understand why the show “Kate plus 8″ is on TV? There are families out there that have had more children at one time. To be honest I am tired of seeing a family that used fertility drugs running around the country getting everything PAID because they chose to take fertility drugs. AGAIN…YOU HAVE A CHOICE TO TAKE FERTILITY DRUGS…YOU ARE HAVING A CHILD/REN IN A UN-NATURAL WAY….SO YOU CAN CHOSE REALLY HOW MANY YOU WANT!
3) If the press / news would stop making such a big deal over multiplies people would stop taking fertility drugs in hopes of having their name in the record books. When the news gets involved that is when people start saying….”oh we were only supposed to have 4 babies and now we have 5…I need a crib, diapers…blah blah blah…” Give me a break……People need to take responsibility for the decisions they make.
When it comes to NATURAL MULTIPLIES. Let me clarify myself….Multiplies that came from NEVER taking fertility drugs….I am happy for the parents. I personally have natural set of twins who were born at 29 weeks. They had a very rare disease. Talk about a scary
road.
posted by TwinsOfMyOwn on 1-27-2009 at 7:57 am
I totally agree with Ira. So many ready-made families looking for the parent part and instead people are basically giving those kids the finger by having a litter of hormonally induced babies. I’m amused at the religious attitude that “it’s god’s will” or whatever that prevents culling the herd. Actually, it appears to have been God’s will for those people to have no children at all.
posted by SA on 1-27-2009 at 8:23 pm
First of all I want to say that it is very easy for people to say that it is Gods will for people to not have children if they cannot naturally. Well I am willing to bet that most of the people that say this are people that can easily have children. There would not be fertility clinics and things at our disposal if it was not Gods will. Yes some people are not careful enough like the woman that recently had octuplets, but to judge the people out their that this is their only choice is just wrong. I was able to concieve my first child naturally but due to complications of the labor am unable to concieve again naturally. Therefore I will be doing Invitro. I am doing this at a highly acredited clinic that is very careful where the risk of multiples is very low. Oh and so if I have two embryos put back and have a high chance of twins (which is not bad at all) but one or two splits to turn it into triplets or quads is that not what God intented. It is one thing for people to go in and be irresponsible and go to bad clinics where they are not closely monitered or they put back tons of embyros just to get a postive pregnancy, but to flat out say that about everyone is very insensitive. So to TWINSOFMYOWN and SA. Just be thankful that yall were so very blessed and could easily have children. I would rather end up with twins than with no more children at all and am willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to do so. I am not saying the way that everyone has done it is right, like I said some people go about it the wrong way and are not carefully monitered and that is wrong, but when done right it can be very safe and resulting in singleton or twin births with a very low chance of anything past that. Like I said if they split thats they way God wanted it. It is so easy to judge when you are on the outside looking in and have never had to experience something. I agree with ya’ll in some areas, but to classify everyone that does fertility treatment that way is is just completely wrong.
posted by Cassiy on 2-8-2009 at 10:14 pm
I have spontaneous twins, but I thank God for my beautiful neice Molly, who was conceived with fertility treatment. My brother and sister in law would not have been able to have any children without the treatment, and I think TWINSOFMYOWN and SA are horrible people for condemning it. My SIL is an adoption worker at the only agency in their area and is not allowed to adopt in their state, even if she quits her job first.
Ira, adoption is wonderful, and I wish more people would adopt older children and sibling groups.
However, I think few people understand what happens to kids ripped away from their entire families. Can you say “attachment reactive disorder”? I kenw you could! Read up on it dude.
Often this happens for no better reason than poverty being labelled neglect, when just giving the mom – or rarely, dad- the money given to foster parents would solve the problems immediatly. This happens ALL THE TIME to African American families.
AA folks make up around 10% of the general population in my state, but more than 60% of foster children are AA.
There is no way that this is always justified and racism is uninvolved. Studies have recently been done providing that AA parents are routinely viewed more harshly than white parents, especially in neglect cases. White mom who says she doesn’t use drugs “doesn’t use drugs” but black mom “denies substance abuse.”
The whole state system of foster care is being overhauled because of the shocking results of this study and an equally shocking wrongful death suit. Case loads were suppossed to be in the 20′s, but were actually many times that number, especially in large cities. The best child welfare worker on earth can’t keep track of 100 children at once and provide adequate and unbiased services. So it’s been cut to barely double digits per worker, and hundreds of new jobs have resulted. The kids win, the families win and the economy wins.
posted by Bumerry on 2-25-2009 at 9:35 pm
Babies created in a lab are science projects. There’s nothing natural about it!!
posted by Twilly on 5-14-2009 at 1:12 pm
The Coble’s are my neighbors they are incredibly sweet.
posted by Kellee on 11-13-2009 at 1:19 pm
Multiple babies are becoming more common as the use of fertility drugs to conceive increases.
posted by I.N. on 3-25-2010 at 6:37 am
I remember the Rosenkowitz sextuplets from South Africa who were apparently the first surviving sextuplets (at least per Wikipedia). When I was a kid the National Enquirer used to run stories about them with pictures. My mother didn’t allow us to have tabloid magazines so I’d have to go over to my friend’s house to look at it.
posted by Donna on 8-26-2010 at 10:25 am