Brisbane Woman Gives Birth to Identical Quadruplets at 28 Weeks

Jenitar Na'amoana, 34, delivered four identical daughters by caesarean section at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in Queensland on July 14. The infants were born at 28 weeks and four days gestation after a pregnancy that developed from a single fertilized egg splitting into four embryos sharing one placenta.

Na'amoana had been admitted to hospital at 25 weeks for monitoring, with doctors targeting 28 weeks.

Maternal foetal medicine specialist Dr Alexa Bendall, who oversaw the care, said the shared placenta raised the risk of mortality and morbidity for both mother and children. Bendall stated the odds of such a pregnancy stand at roughly one in 15 million. “This is unheard of.

We don’t think it has ever happened in Australia,” she said. “There may have been a couple of cases elsewhere in the world. ” The babies, named Emily, Harriet, Catherine and Alexa, remain in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Hospital staff said they are doing extremely well and are expected to stay until they approach full term. One infant was named Alexa after Dr Bendall. Bendall described the outcome as “incredible” and noted that Na'amoana avoided many of the major complications associated with multiple births.

Na'amoana and her husband already had four children aged between one and ten years old. Na'amoana has launched a GoFundMe campaign that GB News reported had raised more than A$37,000 to cover costs including a 10- or 12-seat van, medical expenses, travel, living costs and baby equipment.