Identical Quads Born in Mississippi

Kimberly Fugate was expecting triplets, which was unusual enough, as she was about to turn 42 years old and had used no fertility drugs. But when she underwent a cesarian section on February 8, doctors found four baby girls -all identical to each other!

Dr. James Bofill, a professor of maternal fetal medicine at the hospital said the odds of conceiving identical quadruplets is astonishingly rare, especially in a case like Fugate's, where she became pregnant without the use of fertilization drugs or treatments.

"The odds of spontaneous quadruplets is one in every 729,000 live births," Bofill said. "The chances of having identical quadruplets [are] almost incalculable."

The quads came almost 13 weeks early, and will probably remain in the hospital until May, their original due date. Fugate and her husband Craig already have a ten-year-old daughter.  

(Image credit: University of Mississippi Medical Center)