Bundles of joy

The addition of a new child into any family can be overwhelming, but imagine two, three or four babies at once... Claire Buckis speaks to three families who have been blessed with multiple births.

Marina and Mark Centofanti, both 32, have five-year-old non-identical quadruplets: Benjamin, Alex, Christian and Sarah. They also have a seven-year-old daughter, Lauren.

There were almost 30 people in the delivery room when Marina Centofanti gave birth to her quadruplets: Marina and her husband, Mark; four paediatric doctors; four paediatric nurses (one for each baby); two surgeons; an obstetrician; plenty of theatre nurses, midwives, and a few wardsmen to help manage the birth and ferry the children to intensive care.

Having quads, Marina quickly learned, meant there would always be a crowd; whether it was the multitude of staff at the hospital, the volunteers who helped her around the house, or the quads themselves, who will forever move around in their own little ready-made social circle. At birth they were less than a third of the size of an average baby: “Little sacks of sugar,” Marina says fondly. Five years later, she can still reel off their exact birth weights: Alex, 1.21kg, Christian, 1.38kg, Benjamin, 1.445kg and Sarah, 1.55kg.

Marina became pregnant using assisted fertility techniques. From day one of the pregnancy, she felt “very pregnant, very sick”, although she had no idea what she was about to discover. When she had an ultrasound, the doctor looked from her to the screen in shock. “He was counting: ‘Three… four…’ and I said, ‘Three, four what?’ And he said, ‘There’s definitely four heartbeats. Congratulations.’ I just laughed... for a very long time!” Conceiving the quads was a one in 750,000 chance.

At 20 weeks, Marina was admitted to hospital and went into spontaneous labour at 29 weeks. After the birth the three boys were taken to intensive care to help their tiny lungs breathe, while Sarah was taken to special care to be put in a humidicrib. “It was like a dream; I couldn’t pick them up and cuddle them, which did make it really hard. I had to wait until they were strong enough. I could touch them in the crib, but they were too small to pick up,” she says.

After seven weeks the quads were ready to come home, although they were still smaller than the average baby. Their older sister Lauren was only two years old at the time, and so the Centofanti household suddenly had five children under the age of two. For the first month or so, Marina managed the house under a strict routine with help from family and friends. But soon the workload escalated.

“I basically did not sit down all day,” says Marina. “Unless you’ve seen or experienced it, it’s very hard to understand. It took three hours to feed them. It was constant feeding. I didn’t have time to go to the toilet. And probably an hour to get them settled to bed. In between that you’ve got several loads of washing. And then you have to start all over again because they feed every four hours. Nappies, bathing and cleaning non-stop – mayhem!” 

 Marina sought help through her neighbourhood council, which advertised for volunteers. After a screening process, a local group of 20 was recruited to help with all aspects of childcare and running the house. “I was a little apprehensive at the thought of having strangers in my home,” says Marina. “That, initially, was difficult to accept. But once I got to know them I knew they were just there to help me, and they were wonderful people. It was amazing. You don’t realise how many people out there are willing to help you.” Even with all the help, it was still a very busy time for Marina. How did she cope? “Routine, routine, routine,” she says.

The volunteers were mostly older mothers with grown children. Some helped by making dinner or doing the washing, while others would read to Lauren or help look after the quads throughout the night. “I couldn’t have done it without them,” says Marina. Now the quads are five, the Centofantis don’t need the volunteers anymore, but Marina is still in contact with many of them and has made some lasting friendships.

The quads have increased the family’s social network considerably. Through the Australian Multiple Birth Association (AMBA), they are in touch with a number of other quad families in their hometown Melbourne, Victoria. Meetings between these families always manage to turn a few heads. “A few of the triplets and quad families got together for a picnic recently, which was wonderful,” says Marina. “It’s great to see the older quads; how they interact. But we did get a few looks with all the multiple children running around!”

She says when the Centofanti quads meet other sets of quads, they seem to instinctively understand each other. “It’s like there’s a ‘quad energy’ that they recognise in each other,” says Marina. “Every time they interact with other quads, they know that they’re the same – you never hear them argue or fight, as they do with other ‘non-multiple’ children. They just know they have to share.”

Other mothers and curious strangers often ask Marina questions. “Sometimes people say, ‘Oh my God, you poor thing’, which can be annoying. As daunting as it may look to others, it’s amazing to have your kids around you all the time, and to have a big family,” she says. In fact, Marina and Mark find it hard to imagine what life is like for people who have their kids one at a time. “It really gives you a beautiful sense of family.”

 

Further reading

• Twins! Pregnancy, Birth and the First Year of Life by Connie Agnew and Alan Klein(HarperCollins, 2006)
• Twins and Multiple Births: The Essential Parenting Guide from Pregnancy to Adulthood by Carol Cooper (Ebury Press, 2004)
• The Psychology of Twinship by Ricardo C. Ainslie (Jason Aronson, 1997)
• When You’re Expecting Twins, Triplets or Quads: A Complete Resource by Tamara Eberlein and Barbara Luke (HarperResource, 2004)

Multiple birth facts

• There are two types of multiple birth: fraternal (non-identical multiples) conceived from different eggs; and identical, conceived from the same egg that splits into more than one embryo.
• Twins account for more than 90 per cent of multiple births. 
• According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, twin births have increased 71 per cent since 1980, and the birth of triplets has increased 257 per cent. Fertility treatments can make you more likely to have fraternal multiples, but your chances of having identical multiples are not increased. 
• Women aged between 35 and 40 are more likely to have fraternal multiples because increased oestrogen production can stimulate the ovaries to produce more than one egg.
• You are more likely to have fraternal twins if you are a fraternal twin, or if you have fraternal twins in your family.
• Multiple-birth children are more likely to be born prematurely, and suffer from medical complications such as low birth weight.
• The Australia Multiple Birth Association (AMBA) surveyed 74 mothers of six-month-old triplets to calculate how many hours it took them to do their housework and care for their babies each week. The mothers estimated that it took 197.5 hours – but there are only 168 hours in a week.

Words: Claire Buckis. Photography: Andrew Lehmann. Hair & make-up: Ruth Sebire.