The first quads ever born in Britain who are two sets of identical twins

Sean and Lisa Kelly can barely tear their eyes away from the four babies snuggled up together in the Moses basket beside them.

They describe the girls as their New Year miracles — and it’s easy to see why. For Heidi, Annabelle, Hannah and Jessica have made British medical history.

They are the first set of quads made up of two sets of identical twins born in Britain — the odds of this happening are ten million to one.

Until their four tiny daughters were born last Sunday, the couple hadn’t dared to assume they would arrive into the world safely, let alone with four sets of such powerful lungs between them.

Bleary-eyed but smiling, Lisa, 35, says: ‘We’ve been through so much to have these babies — we’ve suffered miscarriages and so many disappointments.

‘When we heard we were expecting four, and that the risks to their health were so high with it being a multiple pregnancy, we didn’t dare to imagine the day we’d see them all. But looking at them now, it seems real and totally fantastic.’

The Kelly quads, like most quadruplets, were conceived through IVF, on Sean and Lisa’s third attempt. The couple had desperately wanted a sibling for their eight-year-old son, Cameron.

Proud: Lisa and Sean Kelly with their beautiful bundles of joy

Had the babies been conceived naturally, there would have been a one in 70 million chance of two sets of identical twins being born. Four little sisters is probably not what young Cameron had in mind at first, but since they were born he has barely left their side.

‘He is over the moon with them,’ says Sean. ‘Lisa and I have trouble telling them apart, and remembering which nappies we’ve changed and which ones we haven’t. But Cameron is keeping us in order. He’s completely besotted, as are we.’

The girls were born by Caesarean section at the Victoria Royal Infirmary in Newcastle, an hour after Lisa’s waters broke at 31.5weeks.

For the babies’ safety, had she not gone into labour, doctors would have induced her at 32 weeks, on New Year’s Eve.

‘Despite all the risks involved in multiple pregnancies, mine has been problem-free,’ she says. ‘In fact, it’s been easier than when I was having only one.

‘Quadruplets are usually so premature I never thought I’d make it to 31.5weeks, and that they’d all be born at such healthy weights.’

Heidi and Annabelle each weighed 3lb 3oz, Hannah was 2lb 11oz, and Jessica 2lb 10oz. Lisa was given a steroid injection at 25 weeks to help the babies’ lungs develop.

Now, all four can breathe unaided and are ‘fighting fit and giving no cause for concern’. At this age, they are still prone to infection and are on a precautionary course of antibiotics.

Sean says: ‘The C-section was over in minutes, and they took them out so quickly they couldn’t say for sure which baby was twinned with which.

‘We won’t know until we get blood test results when they are about ten weeks old, but for now we’re assuming Heidi and Annabelle are twins because they weighed exactly the same and look alike, and Hannah and Jessica, the smaller two, are also twins.’

Lisa adds: ‘We’re already used to thinking of them that way, so it’ll be strange if we’re wrong. Not that it matters, really. They’re all sisters, and they’ve all got the same little temper — which is a daunting thought at this stage.’

At present, parents undergoing IVF treatment are 20 times more likely to have a multiple pregnancy, and a quarter of IVF pregnancies result in twins.

Most of those twins are non-identical, born as a result of two embryos being implanted at the same time.

'Fighting fit': All four can breathe unaided and are ‘giving no cause for concern’
But the transfer procedure, when the embryo is implanted in the womb — for reasons that are not fully understood — encourages the embryo to split in two, creating identical twins. In the Kellys’ case, both implanted embryos split in two.

Sean, an electrical engineer, and Lisa, a nurse, were shocked to discover they had fertility problems after their first child was born. The couple, who met in 1999, conceived Cameron naturally 18 months later.
‘Cameron was a happy accident,’ says Lisa, who married Sean, 34, when their son was ten months old. ‘When you have conceived naturally, it’s very hard to accept that you can’t do it again.’

Cameron was born by emergency Caesarean section, and although there did not appear to be any complications with the surgery, Lisa’s natural cycle never returned afterwards.