Rare Naturally Conceived Quintuplets born in Arizona

Evonne and Dion Derrico welcomed five newborn babies to their family on September 6th. The quintuplets were born healthy at 32 weeks and two days of pregnancy at Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa, Arizona. The Derricos, who say that the babies were conceived without fertility drugs, originally thought that they would be having quadruplets then later discovered that there was a fifth baby in Evonne’s womb.
The parents didn’t know the genders of the babies, so when they began to arrive at 11:17 a.m., the doctors presented them with an announcement by Evonne of “boy” or “girl.” Continuing with family tradition, all the children were given a name starting with the letter “D.” First born was Deniko, a boy at 2 pounds 6 ounces. Then his brother Dariz was the biggest of the quints at 2 pounds 15 ounces. The first girl, Deonee was born next weighing 2 pounds 6 ounces. Daician was next, a 2 pound 9 ounce little girl. Then finally at 11:21 a.m. the “youngest” and smallest of the quintuplets was a girl named Daiten at 1 pound 14 ounces. The bundles of joy are being watched in the neonatal intensive care unit of Cardon Children’s Medical Center. 33-year-old Evonne said, “For me it was a milestone, two nights ago I got to hold Dariz and see how he was squirmy and then I held him and kind of hummed to him he calmed down.” The quints’ father Dion said, “They went above and beyond they really went above and beyond and I really mean every member of this hospital did that and I will be forever grateful.”

The Derrico family has a history of multiples and the quintuplets join the family with a 7-year-old sister, 3-year-old brother and twin 1-year-old brothers. The family moved to Phoenix, Arizona when Evonne was 22 weeks pregnant for specialized care by perinatologist and multiple-birth specialist, Dr. John Elliott. “I remember when we first got here Dr. Elliot was like, ‘I need you to gain about 75 to 100 pounds.’ And I was like, ‘Good luck!” When the babies are discharged the Derricos plan to return to their home in Las Vegas and do not rule out having more children with Dion saying, “We’ve always talked about between 11 and 12 children…I want a many children as God will bless me with.”
Natural multiple births are rare, but the Derricos are not alone. In June, 23-year-old Alexandra Kinova of the Czech Republic, who did not use IVF treatments, was the first woman in the country to give birth to quintuplets. Alena Mechurova, Director of the Institute for the Care of Mother and Child, cited the rarity of natural quintuplets as 48 million to one. Also in June, Mike Kisner and Charity McCullouch of Wilmot, Wisconsin welcomed naturally conceived quadruplets after a 1-in-700,000 pregnancy. However unlike Evonne and Dion, Charity has no plans of having more babies saying, “Four’s enough.”

InformationNigeria