Katie Sturm had nearly gotten over the shock of learning she was pregnant with quadruplets when in February she suffered a seizure at work. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which was removed at UT Southwestern in March.
Then 18 weeks later, on July 3 and in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic surge in Texas, the 27-year-old mother gave birth to four boys – the first set of quadruplets ever delivered at UT Southwestern’s William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital.
“I don’t know what other way to describe it but to say it was something special – it was amazing,” Sturm says about seeing all four boys for the first time. “The word that comes to mind about care at UT Southwestern is impressive. The care and the doctors have been great.”
The C-section delivery was performed 32 weeks into Sturm’s pregnancy by a team of 21 physicians, nurses, and health care staff. Even prior to birth, each baby was assigned a team of three health care providers in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
“The delivery could not have gone better. After all the routine preparation and other precautions, it all occurred without any hiccups,” says obstetrician Patricia Santiago-Muñoz, M.D., a high-risk pregnancy specialist with experience in high multiple-birth deliveries. “It takes a village to carry this out, and Labor and Delivery, Anesthesia, and the NICU were all ready and even able to roll the C-section back an hour earlier than planned.
The quadruplets were even more surprising because, at age 16, Katie Sturm was diagnosed with primary ovarian insufficiency and told she would be unable to have biological children.
The newborns – Austin, Daniel, Jacob, and Hudson – ranged in weight from 3.5 pounds to 4.3 pounds at birth. They remained in the NICU to gain weight, improve breathing ability, and learn to feed from a bottle. The first baby was able to go home after four weeks, the last after seven weeks.
“The boys really did quite well for what you’d expect for babies born at 32 weeks,” says Becky Ennis, M.D., medical director at Clements University Hospital’s NICU and associate professor of pediatrics at UTSW. “Premature babies can have prolonged pauses in their breathing that will improve with time, and taking a bottle for a baby is like running a marathon. So they have to build up their stamina and they have to practice that skill.”
The quadruplets join older brother Ryan, 3, in the Sturm family, who live in Haslet, north of Fort Worth.
“It’s been a great experience,” he says. “With everything that is going on, it’s nice not to have to worry about this as much because I know we’re in good hands.”
Katie Sturm, who is a medical-surgical nurse at another hospital, had the seizure when she was three months pregnant. She was diagnosed with a tumor and referred to UT Southwestern, where she met with brain tumor specialist Toral Patel, M.D., a neurosurgeon and member of the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute.
After Sturm had a second seizure, Dr. Patel recommended removing the tumor – a glioma – during pregnancy.
“Once the tumor is removed, the risk of seizure decreases substantially, which improves the overall health of both the mother and the babies,” says Dr. Patel, a UTSW assistant professor of neurological surgery.
The surgery was performed at Zale Lipshy Pavilion – William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital during Sturm’s second trimester – the safest point of the pregnancy for the babies. Neither Sturm nor her then-unborn sons experienced any complications.
Woman Gives Birth To ‘Miracle’ Triplets After Two Heartbreaking Miscarriages
Natasha O’Grady and her husband Ryan were left in total shock when they went for their 14-week scan and heard not one, but three healthy heartbeats on the monitor.
The couple had been trying to have a baby for several years and tragically suffered two miscarriages along the way.
Natasha, 32, had become worried that she may never have children and unsurprisingly spent a lot of the pregnancy fearing that history may repeat itself.
But the couple from Isleworth, London, feel so “blessed” that all worked out well and they are now proud parents to three adorable daughters Onyx, Maddox and Quinn, who are four months old.
The couple describes the moment they found out they were having triplets as “surreal”.
Natasha, a content creator, said: “We were in complete disbelief!
“We had mentally tried to prepare to hear those heartbreaking words again, so to hear we were actually already passed the first trimester and carrying three healthy babies was the craziest moment of our lives.
“We have no history of triplets in our family so we feel completely blessed.
“It is like we were given back all of our babies.”
The triplets were conceived naturally and born at 33 weeks, but it was a bumpy road to get to their delivery.
Natasha said: “When I fell pregnant for the third time, there was no celebration hugs or jumping up and down in the bathroom.
“The sheer wave of panic just engulfed us again and that is the sad reality of pregnancy after loss, you truly believe it’s going to be taken away from you at any moment.”
Natasha was leading a healthier life and cut alcohol plus caffeine out of her life whilst focusing heavily on improving her mental health.
She said: “Nearly a year on, I found myself in the bathroom peering down onto that familiar stick again.
“The two blue lines would be the change and the step to giving us both our happiness back.
“Yet, I instantly felt scared that history is going to repeat itself.
“The feeling of guilt for finding yourself feeling bursts of excitement, then having to calm yourself down because the reality is, this baby might just not stay too.
“At 13 weeks, my heart broke into a million pieces when I found blood again.
“Seeing that sight was just like the trap door opened again below me, and the black hole was getting ready to pull me down again.”
But at the 14-week scan, the Sonographer revealed three healthy heartbeats.
Natasha adds: “Going from no children to a parent of three overnight has been a total whirlwind, but Ryan and I work so well, together as a team to give our girls the happiest lives we can.
“We truly believe we’ve been blessed with this incredible gift as it’s so rare to have triplets and couldn’t be more grateful every day that our girls were born into the world healthy and safe after such an incredibly scary pregnancy.
“Some days are hard as we try to adjust, but seeing three smiling faces staring back at you makes it all worth it.”
When Do Babies Start Smiling – Babyaztoday
Babies can smile in the womb, even before they are born. A baby’s earliest smiles are reflex smiles, not an attempt to imitate or engage with adults.
As babies grow, they develop more social skills and control over their movements. According to some experts, most babies begin regularly smiling between 6 and 12 weeks of age. Some may smile in response to a loved one’s smile a little earlier.
