Tracy Hughes – Salmon Arm Observer
It’s snuggles, times three, for Mahalia and Mike Meeuwsen, as their rare identical triplets are healthy and growing in the neonatal intensive care unit of Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops.
The girls, Hannah, Rileigh and Isabelle, were born by C-section on Nov. 3, at approximately eight weeks premature.
They have been cared for in hospital since, but are making excellent progress.
Doctors say the odds of having identical triplets, who were conceived without the use of fertility treatments, are one in 50 million births.
The delivery had been scheduled for Nov. 16, but complications necessitated the earlier delivery date. All three babies weighed just over three pounds each.
Mahalia says all three babies have had intravenous lines removed and no longer need the equipment that was assisting with their breathing.
“The girls are doing amazing, gaining weight and doing great,” says Mahalia, who is thrilled all three babies can be taken from their incubators and cuddled together. All three girls are still being fed with tubes into their stomachs, but are beginning to breast and bottle feed.
Mahalia praises the hospital’s medical staff, saying the quality of care in the NICU has been “absolutely amazing.”
There is no word yet on when the triplets might be released from hospital and come home to Salmon Arm.
