Ultra-Rare Identical Quadruplets Enter the World

Australia just logged a birth so rare that doctors are struggling to emphasize just how rare it is. A 34-year-old woman, Jenitar Na'amoana, delivered identical quadruplet girls via C-section at 28 weeks and four days at Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital last week, reports the BBC. Newborns Emily, Harriet, Catherine, and Alexa were conceived naturally (rare in itself) and are "monozygotic" babies, meaning they came from a single fertilized egg that split into four embryos (rarer still). They also shared the same placenta, which is "unheard of," says obstetrician Alexa Bendall, per Australia's ABC.

"So four sacs, one placenta—we think the figures are about one in every 15 million for a case like this, to be spontaneously conceived," says Bendall, per the Brisbane Times. "We don't think it's ever happened in Australia. There may have been a couple of cases elsewhere in the world, and when I say a couple, literally a couple; two." And no, it's not a coincidence that one of the girls is named Alexa, as is the doctor—the couple chose the name to honor her, which Bendall described as a "beautiful tribute." The infants are now in neonatal intensive care and reported to be doing well. Na'amoana and her husband, Jortham, already had four children ages 1 to 10.