Two mums give birth to triplets in the same hospital in the space of 24 hours. First-time parents Kevin and Farahnaz Field welcomed their three girls – all conceived naturally – into the world at Croydon University Hospital, south London.
Just hours later proud dad Kevin, 43, was showing pictures of his trio in the waiting room to stranger Manda Johnston, whose waters suddenly broke. Manda, 36, was then rushed to a delivery suite, where she gave birth to three boys.
Midwife Gina Brockwell said: “This is a very unusual event in any hospital.
“Typically we see triplets approximately once a year – but not twice in 24 hours. “The whole department is so proud to have played a big part in caring for them all. It was amazing.”
Kevin and Farahnaz non-identical triplets Shanaya, Zahra and Katrina were born by scheduled cesarean at 11am on Thursday June 5. Manda and husband Ken welcomed their three boys – Toby, Luke and Elliott – into the world at 10:30am on Friday, June 6, less than 24 hours after the Fields. Her triplets were delivered by emergency cesarean at just 32 weeks, and little Elliott weighed just 4lb.
Manda, who conceived through IVF, said: “I saw the pictures of Kevin’s babies, and laid down to read my book and my waters broke. “Elliott was quite ill when he was born. He had a collapsed lung three times in the first couple of days and had to have three chest drains.
“He’s just needed a little bit of oxygen to help since but now he’s doing well.
“It was quite hard because I wasn’t able to hold him until he was two weeks old, but now he screams even louder than his two brothers.”
All six babies are now back at their homes in south Croydon.
First-time father Ken, 39, said: “It’s tough when I go to work but when I get home I take over so Manda can have a good rest.”
Stay-at-home mum Farahnaz, 37, said her daughters were keeping her busy at all hours of the day and night. She said: “Sometimes it’s difficult if they all wake up together – they make a bit of a racket when they’re all upset at the same time.
“It’s really quite hard work when they’re all hungry. It takes about two hours to feed them all.
“Zahra is quietest, but Katrina we nicknamed ‘patience’ because she hasn’t got any.”
Fewer than 200 sets of triplets are born annually in Britain and the odds of bringing three of the same s.e.x into the world are 8,000 to one. But this occurrence was made even more remarkable because one of the sets was conceived naturally.
