A woman in Alabama believes that God is responsible for her miracle babies after she had two sets of identical twins in the same pregnancy.
Hannah Carmack and her husband Michael welcomed quadruplets in March, with the four babies being two sets of identical twins.
The couple, who already had eight-year-old daughter Emily, were not planning to have any more children when they fell pregnant, finding out they were expecting quadruplets last October.
Conceiving quadruplets naturally is extremely rare – with the odds being just one in 512,000 to one in 677,000 according to the Journal of Family and Reproductive Health.
The couple, who had been planning to go on a missionary trip to South Africa last November before finding out they were expecting, believe their four new bundles of joy were a gift from God after speaking with their pastor.
Michael told 13 News: “We were told not everybody is chosen for something like this. We’ve been chosen because we didn’t go through fertility, it’s the Lord.”
Hannah gave birth to twin girls Evelyn and Adeline and twin boys David and Daniel on March 14, with the babies being born via C-section at 27 weeks.
The babies are currently still in the hospital receiving treatment for their breathing and help with eating, but are expected to be released in June, around what would have been their due date.
The family is currently remodeling their home to go from having one child to five overnight, and has started a GoFundMe to help with the cost of the renovation.
Michael revealed the couple’s shock at finding out how many children Hannah was carrying, telling Today: “I had to convince Hannah it was a good idea to have a second child. Imagine how she reacted when she found out we were having four!”
He added: “She was like, ‘Twins?’ But the ultrasound tech didn’t respond. Then Hannah goes, ‘Is it three?’
“Then the ultrasound tech put her hand on Hannah’s knee and said, ‘Sweetie, it’s four.’ I started laughing. Hannah started to cry.”
However, Hannah, 29, who is a veterinary technician, soon came around to the idea of their family expanding so quickly after that first scan.
Michael, who is a drug rehabilitation counselor, revealed he always wanted to have a “big family” but “that wasn’t Hannah’s dream”, which led them to explore the spiritual reasons why they conceived four in one go.
He explained: “What I think Hannah came to realize is, ‘This is not normal. We had been chosen for something by God.'”
Dr. Meghana Limaye, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at NYU Langone Health, told Today: “The rate of triplets or higher is only 80 in 100,000 births.
“To have two sets of identical twins, meaning that both embryos split after fertilization, makes it even more rare.”
