Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
200million to 1
Parents’ delight at identical triplets despite incredible odds against them
A FIRST-TIME mum has given birth to incredibly rare naturally conceived identical triplets.
Zahra Amirabadi, 28, is overjoyed with her one-in-200-million daughters Roya, Adina and Sefia.
Zahra and her fiance Ashraf Reid, 29, both have twins in their families.
But the couple went one step further by having three little ladies.
Triplets are usually non-identical, created when two eggs are fertilised and one goes on to grow into twins.
Zahra is one of just a handful of women in Britain to have identical triplets, where the fertilised egg splits into three after conception.
At first, the doctors thought the couple would be having a girl along with identical twin boys.
But at the 17-week scan it was confirmed that they would be having an all-girl trio.
Recalling the moment they discovered they were having triplets, Zahra said: “The doctor started the scan and said, ‘I’ve got something to tell you that might come as a surprise’.
“My mind immediately went to the worst place.
“I was thinking maybe there’s no heartbeat or something like that.
“But when she told us it was triplets, we couldn’t believe it. It was such a shock, there was a bit of swearing from Ashraf because it just blew our minds.
“When they were born they looked so similar, so we got a test done and it showed they were all identical. The egg split once earlier in the pregnancy so Sefia got her own placenta.
“Then the second split happened a bit further along, but they are all from the same egg.”
She said of the moments after the babies were born, by caesarean section, in December: “I heard the first baby cry and I just started sobbing.
“Then I did the same thing again and again. It was just beautiful. It was music to my ears to hear them all healthy and they were brought over to me straight away for skin-to-skin contact and then my partner had the same thing.
“I didn’t think it would be so amazing. “It was definitely the best day of my life.” Roya was born weighing 5lbs 10oz, Adina was 5lbs 2oz, and Sefia was the smallest at 4lbs 4oz.
All three of the babies are now thriving at home in Nottingham.
Zahra revealed that she was constantly tired during her pregnancy, napping twice a day throughout.
Once her little girls came along, pregnancy fatigue was replaced by tiredness from caring for the tiny trio.
But she added: “I’m one of seven sisters and I have a brother, so they were all coming round when Ashraf went back to work. They had all worked out a routine between them so I wasn’t on my own too much.
“Since they’ve started sleeping for longer stretches at night things have got much easier, but it’s still manic.”
It was such a shock, there was a bit of swearing from Ashraf ZAHRA AMIRABADI ON SCAN FINDING TRIPLETS