Allison Penn gave birth to identical triplets Wednesday at North Shore University Hospital in Long Island, NY, an event that happens just once in 200 million births.
Penn, who was impregnated with just one embryo through in-vitro fertilization, gave birth to three sons: Logan, Eli and Collin Penn.
The embryo split in half, and then one half of that split again, said Dr. Victor Klein, a specialist in multiple births and high-risk pregnancies who delivered the boys.
"This is the first one we're aware of in the literature in the country in which they only put back one embryo" and a woman gave birth to triplets, said Klein. "Most people put back two or three embryos, and you just never know."
Identical triplets are born at a rate between one in 60,000 and one in 200 million, depending on the research, Klein said.
Penn, 31, said she and her husband, Tom, 46, had tried to have a baby since they got married about four years ago. She became disappointed after years of trying and decided on in-vitro.
In order to tell the triplets apart, the boys have a dot of maroon nail polish on their fingers. Logan Thomas, who weighed 4 pounds, 12 ounces, has a mark on his thumb; Eli Kirkwood, a 4-pounder, has polish on his forefinger, and Collin McGuire, at 4 pounds, 11 ounces, has a mark on his middle finger. Logan may have a problem with a non-functioning kidney, but the other children are healthy, doctors said.
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