Midwife has identical triplets without fertility treatment

OH what joy for midwife Carmela Testa and her partner Richard Rees, who have made a massive media splash today after welcoming identical triplets to the world.

A great piece from the Daily Mail is here - just look at those hair-dos!

Seeing the family interviewed on GMTV this morning, I don't admitting I had a little tear in my eye. The best was how positive the couple was - they were so happy and smiley as they explained how "blessed" they felt - well before they started to ponder the cost of three weddings that is.

Here's wishing them the very best for the future. Something tells me those girls are going to do okay.

As for the odds reported, don't get me started...Where do you get a sum like 200 million to one from, exactly? (Well actually, in the past, it was from a mug like me!)

I reported on more identical triplets here.

Comments

[Wendy V]

Hi Linda - I just found your site because I was looking for the real statistical likelihood of having identical triplets. So irritating when the media get it so badly wrong! The entire population of the UK is about 60 million and with several sets of identical triplets born each year how could the odds possibly be 200 million to one?! My identical daughters are 21 now, but when I was a member of TAMBA when they were little I met quite a few parents with identical triplets, and one or two with identical quads.

Another article on your site quotes Jane Denton of MBF saying the likelihood of having identical triplets is one in 150,000, which sounds much more feasible. Rare of course, but not THAT rare!

[Linda]

Hi Wendy, thanks so much for dropping by, yes I find those odds baffling. I saw that Tamba was quoted in other reports saying they would be much lower really. I suppose if the families with identical quads were featured then the figures would go through the roof!
x

[grit]

Humph. I do not know what is the point of statistics (spontaneous/ planned/ identical/ non-identical/ 2-identical and one not/ upside down/ left to right/ with ribbons on) apart from to make mothers of multiples feel off the radar. It is not as if it ends in practical help. We just become strange, odd, and annoying in doorways, and someone has a statistic to prove it. I'm sloping off back to my 10 million to one and drinking a bottle of beer. What are the odds of that happening, eh?

[Linda]

Hey Grit, thanks for commenting - I hear you! As I was also sloping off and drinking lots over the weekend, then those odds are encouragingly normal, I hope.