Gina Dewdney, from Cheshire, England, was sʜᴏᴄᴋᴇᴅ when she found out during a 13-week scan that she was expecting three babies.
“I thought I might be having twins, although there are triplets in my family, generations back, I didn’t consider it would happen to me,” 34-year-old Gina said. “I was so sʜᴏᴄᴋᴇᴅ. We both couldn’t believe it when three heads suddenly appeared on the scan!”
During Gina’s first scan, the operator thought the babies might have shared a ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇɴᴛᴀ, but they were sceptical because of how rare it is. There was some confusion about the sᴇx of the babies. At a 16-week scan, they thought Gina had two identical girls and a boy, with the ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇɴᴛᴀ fused and not visible on the ultrasound.
At the 24-week scan, and after they had already picked out girl names and bought girls’ clothes, it was revealed that three were actually three boys and a ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇɴᴛᴀ.
However, the doctors were stunned when it looked like the babies all shared a single ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇɴᴛᴀ. The triplets, Jimmy, Jensen, and Jaxson, were born by C-sᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ at Liverpool Women’s Hospital on April 26 at 31 weeks and three days. All three babies were out in one minute and 52 seconds at 3.52 at night.
Another incredible rarity that happened to one of Gina’s triplets was when Jaxson was born while still inside the ᴀᴍɴɪᴏᴛɪᴄ sᴀᴄ. Only around 1 in 80,000 babies are born this way.
A “ᴄᴀᴜʟ” birth is when the baby is born inside the ᴀᴍɴɪᴏᴛɪᴄ sᴀᴄ, a thin membrane that covers the baby’s face when it is in the ᴡᴏᴍʙ and comes out in an intact ᴀᴍɴɪᴏᴛɪᴄ sᴀᴄ (ᴄᴀᴜʟ). This can make it look like the newborn is completely gift-wrapped in a soft, jelly-like bubble.
The fact that one of Gina’s three babies was left in the ᴀᴍɴɪᴏᴛɪᴄ sᴀᴄ was unique. Since they came out of the hospital, all the babies have been in good health, and Gina created an Instagram page to document their journey.