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“Can I get pregnant if I’m already pregnant?” That sounds like an absurd question, but it’s not. Even more incredible things can happen: Recently, an American mother, who was already pregnant with twins, discovered after a few days that she was pregnant again. She gave birth (prematurely) to the three girls about six weeks ago, and all are in NICU making good progress.
What is superfetation?
What happened to this woman—who uses the handle “Taming Triplets” on social media without revealing her real name—is rare, but does occur and is called superfetation. On rare occasions, after the fertilization of an ovum and the subsequent formation of a fetus inside the uterus, another menstrual cycle occurs with the subsequent fertilization of another ovum. In the animal kingdom it happens more frequently than in the human species.
This results in a dizygotic pregnancy, and it’s not guaranteed that the second embryo will be able to develop to the fetal stage. There are few cases of human superfetation documented in medical literature, and those are often related to artificial insemination, which uses procedures that lead to ovarian hyperstimulation.
This is not the case for the woman behind Taming Triplets. Her incredible pregnancy occurred naturally.
Twins + 1, all three blessed
Taming Triplets (as we’ll call her for short) has 1.4 million followers on TikTok. Once again this social network surprises us, showing the great curiosity of its (often young) users about the story of this woman who had such an unexpected surprise and wanted to share it on the web.
For many people, knowing they are expecting twins is already a major challenge. You give thanks and bless the Lord, but still a little anxiety sets in. Taming Triplets told FaithPot,
“We were just very, very lucky and blessed and thankful and happened to just spontaneously get pregnant with triplets. We wanted to be parents and God went, ‘Watch out what you ask for’ and gave us three at once.”
Once the moment of euphoria and surprise passed, it became clear that the pregnancy was going to be very complex. The youngest child was the most at risk, but the others (conceived 10 days earlier) also faced the possibility of an excessively premature birth.
Could she keep all 3?
It’s time again to complain about the enormous confusion nowadays on the subject of life. Why, in the face of such an unusual and sensational fact, doesn’t medicine roll up its sleeves to support the adventure of exceptional motherhood? Why, when life is so abundant, does humanity, instead of multiplying the support it provides, take the scissors in hand?
These questions arise as Taming Triplets’ tale moves forward and the proposal of “selective reduction,” that is, abortion, rears its ugly head in the story.
The medical team expressed concern for her health and that of the babies. They suggested the couple do some testing to see which of the unborn babies was least likely to be healthy, so they could have a selective abortion.
Fortunately, that option was not on the table for Taming Triplets and her husband. She told FaithPot,
“We want to move forward with all three babies. No genetic testing, no selective reduction. We just pray and hope the babies are going to be healthy … Even if they did have an issue we are going to love them no matter what.”
Considering the times, it’s not surprising that doctors were critical of this decision from a mother who bravely protects the life of an unborn but “problematic” child. In the upside-down narrative of which we are daily victims, we’re really in danger of thinking that doctors who propose selective abortion “for a good motive” are being merciful.
Humanity knows it does not have the divine power to work miracles, and so—in the worst case—it tries to curb an unpredictable trajectory. Not sure if we can save three lives, we only concern ourselves with saving one or two.
The mother chose the better part, relying on the One who loved us even before we were in the womb.
The heavy artillery on the subject of abortion is now our bitter daily bread. It could be a good sign then that this mother has shared her choice (and the words transcribed above) with her large social media audience.
Millions of people have listened to her. 80,000 have “liked” her testimony. There have been more than 2,000 comments in which many other moms with difficult pregnancies have testified that they too chose to accompany the nascent life within them, doing everything they can to support it instead of cutting it short.
This powerful testimony and pro-life perspective is present, albeit largely ignored by the media. The most realistic picture of the world is this presence (hidden from the spotlight) of men and women making difficult choices without giving in to the logic of nihilism.
Welcome Vivienne, Georgina and Ivy
At 32 weeks of gestation, the mother needed to have an emergency C-section because the three babies were in danger. She gave birth to Vivienne, Georgina, and Ivy.
Being premature, they were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. The youngest is still having some problems, but is growing and her mother is optimistic. The older twins are doing even better.
Here they are.
It wasn’t a walk in the park, according to Taming Triplets’ stories. Ivy had a fever and only after 3 weeks were two of them able to be held by their parents. The mother reports that the doctors hope the three can go home by her birthday in early June.
One can expect that this mom’s social media chronicle will change style, flooding us with the blessed hustle and bustle that is the reckless life of a family with three newborns. Yes, it’s that very hustle and bustle that deserves to be heard, to cover the whispering of those who would eliminate what they deem “surplus,” just because they have no one to thank for such blessed unexpected circumstances.
And today we celebrate...