Identical Triplets Born Healthy in UK Despite 200M-to-1 Odds

Terminating identical triplets Ffion, Maddison and Paige Gilbert while they were in the womb due to health risks was an unimaginable option for one couple. There was a 200 million-to-one chance that all three would be healthy, but they were.

Because the triplets were conceived naturally from one egg, which is considered a rarity, there were serious medical risks involving shared placenta, according to BBC News.

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Karen and Ian Gilbert, of Pontypool in South Wales, were told there was a risk of twin to twin syndrome in which one infant can starve the other two babies of food and other fluids.

"But we just couldn't do it," Karen Gilbert told the BBC News. "The babies are ours."

Fortunately, however, the baby girls were born healthy in August and have since met their three-year-old sister Faye.  

"The doctors thought it could be up to three months before we could bring them home so we feel privileged to have got them here with us so soon," Ian Gilbert told the Daily Express. 

Karen Gilbert said that the whole experience is still unbelievable.

"It's been crazy," Karen Gilbert said. "I still feel like someone's going to tell me I've had my time with them now and take them away. We got married, went on honeymoon to New York, and came back to find out we were expecting.

"At first we thought it was one, but at eight weeks I got some really bad pains. We thought it was a miscarriage but it turns out it was three babies fighting for space. The pregnancy has taken its toll but now I'm taking my time to recover and get to know my three beautiful girls," Karen Gilbert added.

According to the Daily Express, there was a 200 million-to-one chance that all three twins would be born healthy. There were 149 sets of triplets born in the United Kingdom in 2006 and one in 4,973 pregnancies is a triplet pregnancy. 

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