(Jamaica Gleaner) After being informed by her doctor that she would never get pregnant, it was a miracle when 19-year-old Danielle Young gave birth to not one, not two, but three girls at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital (VJH) in Kingston two weeks ago.
Having given up hope of ever having children, Young, a resident of Christiana in Manchester, went for medical treatment at a private doctor, after experiencing stomach pains. The piercing intensity of stomach pains in January prompted her doctor to rush for the ultrasound machine.
Shocked at the revelation that she was pregnant with triplets, Young recalled that she wept uncontrollably.
“I knew from the time I found out that I was pregnant that it was triplets, but at the time, it came as a shock to my doctor and myself,” Young told The Sunday Gleaner.
“I was told on January 6, 2013 that I would be having triplets.”
Young recalls that it was on that day that her life changed abruptly and irreversibly. She said she was shown “a yellow light called a sac” on the ultrasound monitor, which confirmed the pregnancy.
DISBELIEF
“As he showed me the sac on the monitor, he said, ‘This is what the baby is in.’ … I said, ‘Baby? What baby?’, and he said, ‘That represents a baby’,” recalled Young.
But there was another and another, which elicited an exclamation from her doctor.
“Everyone was amazed and kept asking whether I was on fertility pills or other medication. Astonished, I responded, ‘No’,” said Young. “The doctor was also astounded. He said to me, ‘My girl, who impregnated you? Anyone who did that is good’.”
Added Young: “Even my urologist said it was the first time in many years that he was seeing a triplet in Jamaica.”
Just to be certain, the medical practitioners repeated the procedure. Again, the ultrasound shed light on three sacs.
“I screamed in disbelief, ‘Turn the monitor because I am not seeing properly!’,” declared Young.
“After the second ultrasound, the doctor said, ‘Congrats, you are having triplets. You are having three babies.’
“I said, ‘What? You lie! Oh my God, no’!” recalled Young. “I did not even know that I was pregnant.”
She added: “I was told that I was unable to have children. I even had to part company with a former partner because he wanted children that I could not give him.”
UNEXPLAINABLE EMOTIONS
It was at that point she said that the tears broke free. The emotions unexplainable.
“It was my first pregnancy. I merely went to see the doctor because I was feeling intense pains and it was for that reason, I guess, that he requested an ultrasound.”
Young said she wondered at the time: “How will I take care of three children? I am still thinking about that,” the 19-year-old said with a chuckle. “How am I going to feed them?”
She recalled that a consultant was summoned to oversee this extraordinary occurrence.
“He painstakingly went over everything, including a thorough examination of my entire body, before confirming that I was pregnant with triplets,” Young recalled. “For a time after the ultrasound, I was really worried, but this eased with the passage of time.”
As the young mother-to-be eventually grasped the enormity of her situation, she was informed that her condition demanded constant medical attention.
“After the first trimester, I had to visit the Percy Junor Hospital every other day as I was diagnosed as a high-risk patient.”
She said a cervical cerclage (a procedure in which non-absorbable suture is inserted to keep the cervix closed) was done when she was four months pregnant.
This continued until June 29 when she was admitted to the Mandeville Regional Hospital.
GIVING BIRTH
After a rough nine months in and out of hospital, Young’s membranes ruptured prematurely at the end of June and the three little girls came into the world by way of a Caesarian section on July 1.
A senior midwife at the VJH described the phenomenon as a rarity.
“I have not seen it in a long while … . I am told that there was one about a year ago, but generally, it’s very rare,” she said.
The veteran midwife described as remarkable and rare the fact that Young was delivered at almost full term.
“It’s unusual, but it’s good to see that she went full term. Usually, they (triplet-bearing mothers) don’t, because of the weight that they have to carry.”
Mother and offspring have now passed the worst after the babies were treated at the nursery of the VJH.
Two of the babies have been released from the hospital while the other is being treated for a minor injury reportedly caused by the infiltration of the intravenous line into the child’s tissues.
For Young, it’s been a hectic two weeks.
“They eat non-stop, and I am really in need of some assistance, but it’s an amazing experience,” she said, even as she refused to speak about the father of the three.
For now, she remains happy with her three bundles of joy – Danniela, Daniela and Denniel.
