What are the chances?

Hi all - a very good friend of mine just found out that his wife is 6 weeks pregnant with triplets. They had their first ultrasound Friday and found that their happy singleton pregnancy is really three babies - identicals and one other. The ultrasound tech saw heartbeats for all three.

So what are the changes that all three babies will make it?

What sort of monitoring should they be getting? Should they switch to a perinatologist now, or later in the pregnancy?

Any advice you'd give?

I'm clueless on all of this since we didn't realize we were having twins until 20 weeks... so thanks to all of you with better info than me!

 

I don't have stats or anything... But I know someone who did IVF and her two split into three. She has identical girls and a boy. They were born early, but are doing well now. They will be three on New Year's Eve. I would think they would be getting monitored pretty early on. Good luck to them!

 

I conceived clomid triplets with this current pregnancy (we also found out around 6 weeks). At our 10 week ultrasound we had lost one of the babies around 9 weeks..but have now carried these two babies to 36 weeks as of today! When I looked into the statistics for this kind of loss the rate was as high as 40% (a similar phenomenon to vanishing twin). Many women carry triplets successfully, but it is also not uncommon to lose one or more of the babies spontaneously in the first trimester. She should definitely be seeing a perinatologist with extra monitoring, as triplets and other higher order multiples are always considered very high risk. Praying for great outcomes for your friend!

 

I don't have experience with triplets or higher order multiples but I'm sure if she's got a good OB she will be referred to a peri VERY soon and the specialist will monitor the pregnancy the entire time. Good luck to her!

 

How exciting! And great that they found out so early. I don't know what the stats are, but there are lots of triplets around Hope all goes well for her.

 

Good luck. I would have her OB recommend a MFM or peri and then let the specialist decide how early to see. I know with my last pregnancy I was seen at like 12 weeks from the specialist.

 

A MFM or peri would be job 1, I'd think. I'm not sure about extra monitoring- I think it'll likely depend on how they develop and which kind of id's she has- mono/di or mono/mono.

Congrats to your friend!