A hospital in Edinburgh has welcomed the safe arrival of quadruplet baby boys.
Brothers Rory, Harrison, Ben and Noah were safely delivered at the Royal Infirmary each weighing around 2.9lbs to proud parents John and Arlene Mitchell.
This is the first time the hospital has delivered quadruplets, with the medical team preparing for months for their arrival.
Naturally conceived quadruplets are incredibly rare, happening in around one in 700,000 births.
Arlene Mitchell, 34, told STV News: “I’m still in a wee bit of shock because there is four! But it will be good to get them home.”
“I was in survival mode, scared if anything happened to them. I was a wee bit shocked. it will be good to get them home.”
“Dr Cowan was absolutely fantastic through the whole thing. It made it so much better.”
John Mitchell added: “Ecstatic, aye, it’s quite hard to describe to be honest, it’s amazing. It really is amazing. Shocked, still, but yeah, it’s mad.
“I just can’t wait to get them home and all just be a nice wee family, or big family!”
The couple had gone for an early pregnancy scan when they were told they were going to have not just one baby, but four.
It was a complete surprise.
John said: “It was hard to describe, the shock and the adrenaline.
“It took 48 hours to get my head around it. I was thinking, ‘is this real? Have they made a mistake?’
“Nobody believed it at first – they were like ‘you’re at it,’ but when they realised, they were so happy for us and couldn’t wait to meet them.”
The boys were born by C-section on May 14 with a team of 20 staff.
Charge nurse Naomi South said the delivery went “smoothly”, due in part to months of forward planning.
She said: “It was a big operation and each quad had four members of the team assigned to them. There were two, three consultants overseeing the whole delivery process.
“We also had to have a list of who would be on call to come in, as normal staff wouldn’t have covered the care required for quads.
“Everyone in the team just did such an excellent job.
“Mum was absolutely amazing. She was very calm and seemed to take everything in her stride, considering she’s now got four little boys.
“It’s not often you get quads – its definitely a moment I will remember in my career.”
Midwife Chloe Brodie added: “The team were amazing. I’m pretty proud to be a part of it and I think that’s what made it go so well on the day.
“Arlene should be so proud of herself. I don’t think it’s anything anyone of us will forget for a long, long time.”
The odds of the brothers being identical are 50 million to one.
Mum and dad are going to wait to find out.
For now, they’re eagerly waiting to get the boys home to join proud big sister Lauren and older brother, Hunter.
The family have worked out they’ll go through 47 nappies and 32 bottles of milk every day.
It’s hoped the first of the boys will be strong enough to go home in the coming weeks.
Arlene said: “Chaos! It will be nice but yeah it will be very, very hands on.
“But we’re ready for it, anything that’s going to be thrown at us we’re ready for it.”
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