Thanks to the miracles of in-vitro fertilization, a couple in the U.K. have just brought the third of triplet girls into the world, more than ten years after the first two were born. Adrian and Lisa Shepherd underwent in-vitro treatments in 1998 because Lisa suffered from fertility issues that made traditional conception difficult. Fourteen eggs were successfully fertilized, but only two were implanted in Lisa. She gave birth to her twins, Megan and Bethany in 1999.
The other twelve were put in deep freeze until the family started the family decided to have another child last year. ”We didn’t know if it would work, and we agreed that we would just have one go with one embryo and if it didn’t work, we wouldn’t try again,” Lisa, 37, told the Daily Mail. “It was one last chance, and if it was meant to be, then it would happen.”
The single embryo, conceived the same day as Megan and Bethany, took and nine months later Raleigh Shepard was born.
“It seemed strange to think that we were using embryos that we had stored all those years ago, that were conceived at the same time as the girls,” Lisa told the Mail. “We knew that if we had another baby it would in effect be the girls’ triplet as they were all conceived at the same time.”
“When Ryleigh arrived, she looked like both the girls did when they were born 11 years before,” Lisa said. “It was uncanny.”
