Identical Triplets born
 

MANHASSET, N.Y. - When they get older, Logan, Eli and Collin Penn may blanch at the notion they wore nail polish to their first news conference. But it's the only way their parents know how to tell the boys apart right now. The identical triplets were born Wednesday at North Shore University Hospital on Long Island — an event so rare that an obstetrician estimated it might happen just once in 200 million births.

The triplets' mother, Allison Penn, was impregnated with just one embryo through in-vitro fertilization, said Dr. Victor Klein, a specialist in multiple births and high-risk pregnancies who delivered the boys.

That embryo split in half, and then one half of that split again, he said.

"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.

Allison Penn, 31, said she and her husband, Tom, 46, had tried to have a baby since they got married about four years ago. Although she once thought of having several children, the disappointments over four years revised her dreams downward.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080305/...cal_triplets_5

Wow.

1 in 200 million births. Wouldnt that mean there are at least 30 cases in the world? This should be happening like once every other year.

I knew a set of female identical triplets in college. Well, they sure all three looked exactly alike, but it could have been a M-K and Ashley thing where even though they looked alike, they weren't identical.

I did too. They were identical triplets, but they had slight differences in appearance that helped us tell them apart. They all joined the same sorority and lived in the same dorm (one of them was my suitemate freshman year). Most people just referred to them as The Triplets.

I have seen identical quads... Now that is rare!!!

I use to go to school with the kids who were the babies on "My 3 Sons" TV show...

I love that they actually named them normal names. I was reading the bad names thread, and this reminded me of a set of twins I know with all too similar names. They are Anita and Annette. One of them has a mole, and that was supposed to help me tell them apart. (Yeah right!!)

I get tired just thinking about chasing two year old triplets around...

LOL. Really. Just need 3 of them and link 'em together like they do sled dogs... :)

Thats what I was thinking. If they're bad you can just tie em up and spray em with a pressure washer.

Another set of identical triplets. This time, in Surrey, British Columbia

Globe and Mail

They make that seem just a little more important than it actually is.