New Jersey First-Time Mom Gives Birth to Quadruplets at a Hospital in Phoenix
A woman from New Jersey recently gave birth to quadruplets at a Phoneix, Arizona hospital. First-time parents, Nicholas and Jennifer Stepenosky, shared their family had been ten years in the making.
A news site recently reported the couple welcomed baby boy Elliot and three baby girls Caitlin, Addison, and Emilia. Jennifer said, "I'm really excited to get them back home," while expressing that it is a bit overwhelming to have four.
The couple shared that after they tried several fertility treatments for several years, they found out in January that they were pregnant with five babies.
After learning at that time that they would have high-order multiple pregnancies, they knew it was not going to be a normal pregnancy.
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High-Risk Pregnancy
The Stepenoskys admitted that it was a high-risk pregnancy, and there was a lot more at stake since much care was needed to guarantee the safety of both the mother and the babies.
The couple also shared that after they lost one of the five babies during Jennifer's 16th week in pregnancy; they sought help from distinguished perinatologist, John Elliott.
Elliot has already delivered over a hundred quadruplets. Jennifer said, "Having that comfort and being able to really trust our physician made all the difference to us."
With the pandemic, the Stepenoskys said everything in New Jersey shut down, and thus, they had not seen their family during the entire pregnancy period.
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Introducing the Quadruplets to the Family
The quadruplets were born after 27 weeks and three days and stayed at the NICU in Phoenix for the past two months. In the middle of this week, the babies were reportedly brought back closer to their home via medical transport.
They have been staying at the Wilmington-based Nemours DuPont Hospital for Children. As for Nicholas and Jennifer, they are finally home again in New Jersey.
The couple shared that they are very excited to introduce their not just one, but four new members to the family. The first-time dad said they have "four different individuals with four different personalities already."
Pregnancy with Multiple Babies
There are complications in pregnancy with multiple babies. This is alongside the fact that having quadruplets is rare. Experts recommend going to a hospital, instead of home birth for any couple with this situation.
Intrauterine Growth Restriction or IUGR is a condition that could impact quad. Multiple pregnancies develop at a roughly similar rate as single pregnancies up to a particular point.
Quadruplet pregnancies start to slow at 25 to 26 weeks. More so, IUGR apparently happens as the placenta is unable to handle more growth, and since babies compete for nutrients.
In this case, the doctor will observe and monitor the babies' growth through ultrasound and the abdomen's measurement.
Pregnancy with quadruplets is quite uncommon. However, the rise of fertility treatments is turning more common. Furthermore, according to medical experts, quads can be identical, fraternal, or a combination.
A lot of quadruplet sets have a combination of identical and fraternal siblings like, for instance, three identical and one fraternal. For some, two babies are identical, and two are fraternal. For the others, quads have two pairs of identical babies.
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Check out more news and information on pregnancy on MD News Daily.
Aug 14, 2020 10:14 PM EDT
