The RBWH team were excited to welcome quadruplets into the world
For the first time in more than nine years, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital has welcomed a set of quadruplets into the world.
Non-identical baby girls Nova, Kingsley, Emerson and Olly Meads were born on 27 June 2022 to mother Breeanna Meads and father Kwenton Demnar.
The chances of naturally conceiving non-identical quadruplets are approximately one in 700,000, with around three sets of quadruplets with all babies surviving born in Australia each year.
The quadruplets spent their first few months of life in the RBWH Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) before recently being transferred to a hospital closer to their home in Gympie, Queensland. Once they are ready, they will be able to go home where they will join their six other siblings ranging in age from five to 13.
Mum Breeanna said finding out they were having not one baby, but four, was quite the shock.
“Kwenton asked the sonographer to reset his computer while I was having my ultrasound to make sure there wasn’t a glitch in the system. When the sonographer told him the computer was working fine, he turned as white as a ghost,” Breanna said.
“We both started crying when we found out. We’re still not sure if they were happy or shocked tears!
“Now that they are here, we are so grateful for our girls. They truly are a miracle.
“We’ve had a few little ups and downs over the past two months, but they are slowly getting healthier. We spend our days on the NICU making our way around to cuddle them all.”
RBWH Director of Neonatology Dr Pieter Koorts said the entire team were so excited to have quadruplets in the unit.
“We were aware of the quadruplets’ existence in utero for a while, however the team was taken by surprise when they decided to make their appearance earlier than expected. Our nurses quickly had to make room for them, and we called in extra staff to ensure we had a specialised team for each quad, ready to help,” Dr Koorts said.
“All four babies did well in our unit. They all seemed to have the same issues at once, as well as different issues, just to remind us that they are all different!”