Mar 16 2008
Rare Identical Triplets Born
Fertility treatments greatly increase the chances of conceiving multiples, but triplets born identical is extremely rare. This is because identical triplets occur when one single egg splits into three. Allison and Tom Penn defied the odds and welcomed a triple-blessing; identical triplet sons (Collin- 4 lbs, 11oz, Logan- 4 lbs, 12 oz and Eli- 4 lbs even) into the world on February 27th at the same hospital Jennifer Lopez’s twins were born just days before; North Shore University Hospital on Long Island. After trying for a baby for several years, Allison, 31 and Tom, 46, chose in-vitro fertilization. Allison was impregnated with just one embryo and it split in half; not once, but twice! On The Early Show, Allison said, “The first doctors that we saw, they said that our chances were dismal, and we should probably just terminate and start over. I guess some people can reduce, but because they’re identical, they were all in one placenta. It was either get rid of al l of them or keep all of them.” Tom added, “There was never a question what we were going to do. They were happy and healthy right where they were at that time, and there was just no reason to even go that direction.” The triplets are still healthy overall, but Logan may have kidney problems. According to the doctor who delivered them, Dr. Victor Klein, this is the first set of identical triplets born that he’s aware of in the entire country of when only one embryo was implanted. “Anybody who says God doesn’t have a sense of humor - everything we did was just for having one baby, and now we have three and they are a miracle,” said the proud new father of three.
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A recent study reports the risk of developing schizophrenia is approximately 67% greater among children of women who have experienced the loss of a loved-one during their first trimester of pregnancy (but not prior to pregnancy and not after the first trimester). According to the report in the February issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, researchers studied comprehensive data from 1.38 million Danish births over a 22 year period. Nearly 22,000 of the mothers were exposed to the death of a relative, over 14,000 were exposed to a relatives’ serious illness. The children whose mothers were exposed to extreme stress such as a death or major illness of a close relative were then followed from the age of 10 until death to identify any onset of schizophrenia. Over 7,000 of the children studied went on to develop schizophrenia. The findings support the theory that severe maternal stress impacts fetal brain development profoundly inside the womb.
