B.C. woman gives birth to rare identical triplets

A British Columbia woman who waited years to become a mother has given birth to identical triplets.

Salmon Arm resident Mahalia Meeuwsen, 42, was scheduled for a C-section on Nov. 16, but complications with the pregnancy brought her babies into the world sooner than expected. 

Interior Health confirmed the triplets were born Tuesday afternoon. The babies and their mother are doing well.

The three little ones were born eight weeks premature and are currently in the neonatal intensive care unit. Doctors had been hoping they would continue to grow in their mother's womb until Nov. 16, when they would have been at 34 weeks gestation. 

A normal, single pregnancy is around 40 weeks.

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Doctors say three-of-a-kind come along only once in 50 million births. The babies' grandmother, Christine Meeuwsen, said the family is very excited. 

Unexpected pregnancy

For Mahalia Meeuwsen and her husband Mike, just having one baby seemed like a miracle.

The identical triplet girls were conceived naturally without the use of fertility treatments.

The couple from Salmon Arm married in 2005 with hopes of becoming parents. By 2011, they were still waiting and visited a fertility clinic to try and discover the cause of the infertility.

They decided not to do in-vitro and came to terms with being childless.

However, in April, Meeuwsen was experiencing some unusual symptoms she chalked up to early menopause — until a call from her doctor's office confirmed she was pregnant and subsequent ultrasounds revealed the triple surprise.