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Methodist Women's Hospital NICU home to record number of triplets

Posted at 6:29 PM, Jan 20, 2021
and last updated 2021-01-20 19:30:46-05

OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Methodist Women's Hospital is starting off the year with fifteen times the bundles of joy. The NICU is currently home to five sets of triplets, a record for the hospital. Before this, the most amount of triplets to have been cared for at the same time was three sets.

"The parents are happy, we are happy, it’s an amazing thing. It rarely does happen that we have five sets of triplets in the unit at the same time but it’s just a reflection of the good work the team does at the Methodist Women’s Hospital. We are really grateful and excited," said Dr. Chinyere Oarhe, a neonatologist at Methodist.

Doctors say triplets are usually not very common, but are becoming more common due to advancements in fertility technology.

"It’s not that common, twins yeah, singles yes but triplets not that common. But it’s happening now, especially now with the advance in reproductive technology. So I would say it’s not very common but it’s common because now we have five sets of them in the unit," Oarhe said.

Oarhe said the team at Methodist have all been working together to care for all the babies, who are all healthy and on track to go home soon.

Molly and Otis Seals, who welcomed two girls and a boy on November 29, are hoping to take their babies home in the upcoming weeks. While they said it's exciting, it's also an adjustment for them. The triplets, Stevie, Otis and Sutton are the Seals' first children.

"These are our first kids, and so the good news is we have the three kids so we don’t know what it’s like to have one. So we’ll only know what it’s like to have three right now," Otis Seals Sr. said.

The babies were conceived through fertility treatments after Molly experienced a miscarriage back in 2017. Now, they've been blessed with not one but three babies.

"It was kind of a shock and took quite a few weeks for it to kind of hit, before we really took it all in," Molly Seals said. "It’s been a long three years but we’re just so happy to have been blessed with three."