A rare birth of identical triplets sharing the same placenta took place at Hadassah Hospital last week, surprising the family as well as medical experts.
A few months ago, a Jerusalem woman was notified that she was pregnant with identical triplets. The exciting news came as a surprise to the already relatively-large family. "We really didn't expect this pregnancy," the woman said.
Due to the complicated nature and inherent risks of a pregnancy involving triplets, different doctors advised the woman to terminate the pregnancy immediately.
"I met a number of doctors at hospitals who told me that there is a risk involved in pregnancy with triplets and that selective reduction could also be dangerous because the fetuses shared a placenta. And so the medical recommendation was to end the pregnancy," the woman said.
However, after being referred to Prof. Simcha Yagel from the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, the woman decided to go forth with the pregnancy, having received a more optimistic professional opinion from Yagel.
"From asking around in our community, we learned of Prof. Simcha Yagel at Hadassah. As soon as we walked through the door of his clinic, we found an angel disguised as a doctor who accompanied us each week for the course of the whole pregnancy, until I gave birth," she added.
Earlier this week, the woman gave birth to three healthy identical boys - a rare event that takes place around once every 200,000 births and only once a year in Israel, on average. On Monday, the lucky family came together as the third baby was released from Hadassah's ward for premature babies and joined his two brothers at home.
"Pregnancy with identical triplets is a very rare pregnancy and requires close medical tracking in order to ensure that the fetuses are developing properly and to track that there is no early birth," Prof. Yagel noted. "When fetuses share one placenta, a situation could develop in which more blood flow is reaching one fetus than the others, and then there is a need for surgical intervention. Our goal in the intensive tracking was to ensure that no abnormal situations develop, and if one does develop, the tracking allows us to deal with it as quickly as possible."
Prof. Yagel added that "giving birth to triplets is a more complicated process and the fact that they share a placenta turns it into an even more complex situation. We were happy that the birth was a success and the mother gave birth to 3 healthy, identical boys and we are more than happy that it happened at our hospital in Har Hatzofim."