December 3, 2024 • 31 mins
[Part 1 of 2] Having one baby is hard. Imagine four! This is the incredible story of Taylah Tudehope-Glachan’s pregnancy and birth with her quadruplets.
In Part 1 of Taylah’s tale, she details a roller-coaster fertility struggle; think PCOS, endometriosis and IVF.
Plus what it was like discovering her successful transfer had resulted in four babies.
You’ll hear about high-risk pregnancy, exactly HOW she fell pregnant with quads, and how she handled her hospitalisation at 24 weeks
Can’t wait for part two? You don’t need to! Listen to part two of Taylah’s story here.
If you’re a soon-to-be mum of multiples, the Australian Multiple Birth Association is a wonderful resource.
Diary Of A Birth features mums telling their miraculous stories of bringing life into the world, and we have all medical questions and concerns cleared up by Australia’s favourite paediatrician, Dr Golly.
If you’d like to share your birth story, we’d love to hear from you at podcast@mamamia.com.au or send us a voice note here.
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CREDITS:
Host: Ksenija Lukich
Expert: Dr Golly
Executive Producer: Georgie Page
Audio Producer: Scott Stronach
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
I'm Kissena Lukic, and this is diary of a birth.
I'll never forget the day that I found out that
I was having my first baby.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
After two years of infertility.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
And the constant cycle of two weeks of hope, then
two weeks of disappointment and anxiety, we got that positive
pregnancy test and it was one of the most incredible
days of my life. And if you, like me, struggle
with falling pregnant, you'll know what a wondrous surprise it
is to be told that finally you're with child, just
(00:35):
like today's mum.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
And then she puts on the sound and it's got
the strong, like the strongest heartbeat ever, and oh, I
gets amercial because that sound is like it's the heartbeat
that's coming from inside you, and that's your baby, and
that's the sound like that you have longed for for
so long. We're just wailing like we're balley.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
But for the woman telling this birth story, the moment
was extra surprising.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Four times as shocking, you might say.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
So she's put the wand on my belly and I've
seen like multiple like black circles, and then she's ripped
it away and I see like the color drop from
her face and I've instantly gone and she's gone. She goes,
this isn't twins, this is she's what even is? Is quads?
Quad quadruplets.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
You won't believe the shocking rollercoaster of emotions she went
through over an incredible pregnancy.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
I was so scared. There was not an inch of
excitement in me, to be completely honest, Like I was
just so overwhelmed with fear because this was just so
unknown to me, Like I just didn't know what was happening.
Four babies, what the hell? Like I can't carry four babies?
Like am I gonna die? Yet?
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Ready for the most incredible pregnancy story ever.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
At thirty weeks I think I was measuring it. Fifty
two weeks pregnant, I was massive and my lungs were
getting compressed. I couldn't breathe proper because my lungs were
so squished. I couldn't eat much because my stomach was
getting squished.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
So let's meet today's mum.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Hi, my name is Taylor, and this is the diary
of my birth with michauadruplets Daisy, Archie, Billy, and Charlie.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Taylor chewed hope Glacken is nothing short of a superwoman.
Her story is unbelievable and you're in for such a
treat just to hear her tell it. But let's start
back before her life took its crazy turn.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Yeah, so life before the Cords was just very usual.
Sean and I met in high school, being together now
for over twelve years. We're very local to where we are,
We're kind of born and raised in this area, and
we're very family orientated people, so been together for a while,
got married back in twenty twenty two, host COVID kind
(02:53):
of thing, and I have always been very full was
short about wanting to start a family, So that's something
that we always knew would come. We just didn't know
that it would come this quick. But yeah, we're very
sport oriententended people, very social. We love our friends, but
we're also real home people. We love getting around and
doing DIY and yeah, that was kind of just us
(03:14):
go around, travel camping, and things have changed very quickly.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Taylor had endured a lot of health issues in the past.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
So falling pregnant wasn't what I expected. So back when
I was in my very very early twenties, I was
told I had pcos so polcistic ovary syndrome, and I
was kind of told, do you want to have babies now?
And I said no, but I do down the future.
So we kind of just brushed it to the side
and I just continued on managing my symptoms. But it
(03:42):
wasn't until we got engaged and I knew that we
wanted to have babies coming up, and so that's when
I started preparing my body. Went and seeing my doctor
and said, look, this is what's going to be our
plan for the next few years. Can you help me
start getting my body ready. So we started doing a
bit of investigating and it led me very quickly to
specialists and surprised to me, I had stage four endometriosis.
(04:06):
So I didn't necessarily have painful periods or the pain
as such during a mentrual cycle like a lot of
people explain with the edemitriosis. I had other issues, bower
issues and pain like that because my ovary was attached
to my bow with endemetriosis. So I was lucky enough
to have all that removed and keep my ovary intact,
(04:28):
which was great. And they also seen that, yeah, my
ovaries were quite enlarged because of the PCOS two. So
all of that all cleaned up and they were like, Okay,
you should be really fertile, now go on your way,
And that most definitely wasn't the case.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Like so many women, Taylor realized that while she knew
how babies were made, she didn't really know how to
fall pregnant.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Just kept going with trying. Was kind of a bit
naive in the situation. I was studying to be a
primary teacher and I still didn't know that much about
the female bod, Like I just I was really naive.
It was amazing how much I didn't know. And here
I am being a woman for what I was twenty
seven I think at the time, and I didn't even
(05:10):
know these things on how to get pregnant. But anyways,
we kept trying, and yeah, didn't work. I was then
put on it's called lectrosol, so it encourages ovulation. Because
I wasn't ovulating. I wasn't having a period, So I
was put on medication to enforce a period, to enforce ovulation,
and still nothing was happening, no ovulation. I got put
(05:32):
to a fertility specialist. She goes, you're not getting pregnant
in any way shape or form on this medication at
the moment. So in order to get me just to ovulate,
she had to triple my dose for double the time
with this lectrosol, and we're tracking, I was getting blood
tests tracking when I'm ovulating. Here we are trying to
have sex every second day, Like it's just ridiculous. It
(05:54):
just makes everything feel so procedural, and it just takes
the fun out of everything, and it's just not the
way that you plan to get pregnant. It takes a
surprise out of it, it takes the joy out of Yeah,
it just made everything feel really medical. But that's what
we had to do, and so be it will do it.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
After a year of tracking ovulation and not falling pregnant,
Taylor's next step was IVF, but the doctors warned her
that it wasn't going to be straightforward for her.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
So my ovar is with chocolate block with follicles, which
I was like, oh, that's great. Doesn't that mean I
have this really high chance? But how she explained it
to me was they're so full. Nothing can reach its
full maturity inside your ovaries, and so you have these
really immature follicles. But with IVF. Their job is to
stimulate those follicles, and then they give you this drug
(06:48):
that gets you to release those follicles. And naturally you
only normally release one or two follicles here and there.
But here I am with chocol block overariaes. I think
there's upwards of maybe even sixty and per overy. Stupid number.
So I was given like a really really low dose
and it came to the collection phase and I remember
(07:08):
them going, Taylor, did you hear that We've got your
first egg? Got your first egg? And then the rest
was a blur. I remember them coming in and saying, Taylor,
we got thirty and I was like, thirty eggs? What Like?
I know friends and family that have had IVF and
they're getting four. I'm long thirty.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Five days after Taylor's collection, an incredible fourteen embryos had
survived to the blastocyst stage, but then she fell ill
and was hospitalized with ovarian hyperstimulation, which took a few
months to recover from, meaning a delay in transferring any
of the embryos into her So remember that Taylor was
still on letrosola this stage, as her PCOS meant she
(07:50):
didn't naturally ovulate but she was three months off the
IVF stimulation. Finally, three months after the retrieval date, it
was time to implant the most viable embryo.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
When you're going for your transfer, you have regular blood
tests to catch when you're ovulating, so as soon as
you're ovulate five days later, you must have that transfer.
And they need to catch that ovulation window very carefully,
and we go for the embryo transfer. It's just a
wild experience. I was just reading through my journal notes
(08:22):
about it. And you work so hard for this day,
and you think about getting pregnant, and you work so
hard to get these eggs and get them to blastosses
to get them to be an embryo, and you go
in for this transfer appointment and it's five minutes, it's
done and dusted. It's just like you're going in to
get your eyebrows done. To these ladies, they're just so
(08:42):
good at it. They're like, we've picked out your embryo
number five. Here it is, we're about to transfer. It's
just one embryo. It's just one embryo. And so they
transfer it. We see the little light flash. Those that
do if no, apparently you look for the flash on
the ultrasound machine. It's apparently a telltale signed to see
(09:03):
if the embryo has gone through. And they're like, okay,
if you go, we'll give you a call in two
weeks to let you know if that's happened. So then
you go on this two week dreaded weight. It is
the longest two weeks of your life. Like as soon
as you walk out that appointment, first of all, you're like,
I don't want to pooh because you're scared youre going
to push this little embryo out. But they're like, don't worry,
(09:24):
it won't happen. It's not going to fall out. But
you're walking around with your legs held tired, like something's
going to fall out of you. But yeah, two weeks
we waited and it was so so stressful. But I
instantly felt my boobs were getting bigger. I was feeling
a bit different. But I was way too scared to
verbalize any of this because I didn't want to put
(09:46):
any bad voodoo out there. I just was okay, let's
just pray to the gods because statistically, your first embryo
transferred nomally isn't that successful.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
As someone who's gone through IVF. Let me tell you,
the waiting periods are absolute torture. It is a constant cycle.
It's two weeks of hope, excitement. It's did this injection work?
It's my eggs in the right place. Is my body
doing the right thing? Are my hormones doing the right thing?
(10:15):
You feel like a pin cushion. Waiting for phone calls
from embryologists is another certain kind of hell because you're constantly.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Waiting for the phone call.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
You're staring at your phone waiting to see what's happening.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
And you do not want to miss that phone call.
It is excruciating.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
The day that Taylor was due to receive her blood
test results, the call came through at eleven am, but
she torturously left the voicemail unheard so she could get
the news with Sean that evening.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Before we listen to it, we both say, okay, all right,
if this doesn't work, and we're pretty sure it hasn't worked,
because we're looking at statistics here, we have another thirteen
and goes this isn't give up stage. We need to
stay positive in this journey because this journey can go
on for quite a long time. And anyways, we press play,
and she says, congratulations still makes me so emotional because
(11:12):
that's the day you hope and you pray for. And oh,
like we had wished of that day for so long
and it was there and we were just like, oh,
we just couldn't grasp what was happening around us, and
we just held each other for so long and we
were just like, oh my god, like it's happened. We're pregnant.
(11:33):
At that point, we're going, oh my god, we're pregnant
with one baby, and gosh, things changed coming up. And
then we walk out the door and then the weight
just crushes me and I'm just in Shan's arms and
we're just trying to get back to the car and
I'm just hysterical, and we don't speak, like we don't
even know what to say to each other.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Every mm waits with baited bread for the all important
dating scan, when you find out how many weeks pregnant
you're measuring and the approximate date that you'll be blowing
out those birthday candles each year. It may be the
day you see their first tiny, wriggly arms and hear
their strong, healthy heartbeats. Eight weeks later, Taylor and Sean
returned to their IVF clinic to have their scan, and
(12:21):
Taylor's account of finding out just how many bubs were
in her stomach is stunningly vulnerable and honest.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
As much as it's incredible, I need to be honest
about how I felt in that situation because there's a
lot of emotions that come with this. So we're waiting
in the waiting room, and aha, imagine if it's twins,
La la la. So we go in, we sit down,
we're in a room, Sean's beside me, We've got masks on,
and there's a big TV in front of us, and
(12:49):
the sonographers are my right. Sean's on my left shoulder,
and she's lovely. And I've seen a fair few ultra
sounds of my times with my PCOS and my adometriosis
and getting ready to have this baby, so I kind
of have gotten a grasp about what a belly should
look like on an ultra seal machine. Sean doesn't know
what he's looking at it. He could be looking at
(13:09):
a PlayStation screen for early nosing. And so she's put
the wand on my belly, and I've seen like multiple
like black circles and then she's ripped it away and
I see like the color drop from her face and
I've instantly gone and she's gone. Sean's going, why is everyone?
(13:30):
And like what's going on here? Like I'm trying to
say things, nothing's really coming out. And she just put
her hand on my leg and she said, Taylor, you
have multiple pregnancies in here. I have to count to
know how many you have in here. I can't even
like fear. It was just fear. And so she started
(13:51):
counting and she's put the warmth on. She's gone, okay, one,
all right, two, and I'm like, holy crap. And she's
gone three and I'm like, oh my god. Three, and
then she's gone four. Oh, oh my god. For I'm
instantly hysterical, like I can't breathe. I'm like I could
(14:15):
feel my heart coming out of my chest. I was
trying to hold back that big like cry, like I'm
trying to regulate my breathing. And I remember like consciously thinking, Taylor,
catch your breath, Catch your breath. You're gonna faint. Catch
your breath. And she said, did you guys have sex
after the trance plant? And we said no, no, no,
not after no, like you told us not too after
(14:38):
She's gone, okay, let me just count again. Sean and
I trying to breathe, and I've just grabbed Sean's hands.
I'm squeezing it for life on my shoulder. And I
was so scared, like there was not an inch of
excitement in me, to be completely honest, like I was
just so overwhelmed with fear because I didn't know. This
was just so unknown to me, Like I just didn't
know what was happening. And to me, instantly, I thought,
(15:01):
this pregnancy is scrapped, Like this is not a viable pregnancy.
Four babies? What the hell? Like I can't carry four babies?
Like am I gonna die? Like I literally thought, like
could I die because of this? And so the next
part was to go check what was viable and she said, Okay, well,
I guess we start this kind of the way we
(15:21):
do a twins, and I'll start at the cervix. Looks
at the first sack. Yep, there's a baby, and there
was a yoke sack in there as well. And then
she puts on the sound and it's got the strong,
like the strongest heartbeat ever, and oh, it gets emotional
because that sound is like you see everybody's videos of
like this heartbeat sound. You're like, oh, that's nice, But
(15:43):
then it's the heartbeat that's coming from inside you, and
that's your baby, and that's the sound like that you
have longed for for so long. We're just wailing, like
we're balling, and I was like, oh my god, I
hadn't even heard the word quadruplet. Like all three of
us just stop and go, oh my god. The scenario
has said she's been doing this for over thirty years
(16:04):
and she's never seen it before. She goes get in
touch with your doctor quick, and the realistic side of
it all starts really really becoming quite heavy. Yeah, struggle
to not let your mind go there about is this viable?
Is this safe? Is everything going to be okay? And
then we walk out the door and then the weight
(16:24):
just crushes me and I'm just in Shawn's arms and
we're just trying to get back to the car and
I'm just hysterical, and we don't speak, like we don't
even know what to say to each other. We're just
not speaking, but we're just we're just in that moment
right then and there, and we're just driving along. It's
about an hour drive to get home, and we had
to stop at Macis because I started getting hungry. I
(16:45):
needed a six pack of nuggets asap. And we've gone
through mc donald's and I've just said, Sean, what is
this like we were hoping to get three kids across
our lifetime, like what we're going to do? And on
the way home, we pretty much just ended up saying that, Okay,
(17:05):
if I'm well and the babies are well, we'll continue
with what we have to do. And we're in a
very amazing country with an incredible healthcare system, and we're
going to follow the guidance of our doctors. And as
much as the baby's health is important, so is mine,
and we're going to find this medium between both and
(17:26):
keep everybody safe.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
I'll never forget the moment when I told my parents
that we were pregnant. It happened straight after I found
out with Dan, and it was one of the best
moments of our life. But the reactions of Taylor's family
and friends was utter disbelief.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yeah, we went home, we told our families and it
was weird. It was how do you tell your family
that you're pregnant with quadruplets, Like we just walked in
and we just handed them the photo and we're like,
we're having quadruplets, and I believed us and then they're like,
oh my god.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
So one of the biggest questions I have about having
cords is what was your pregnancy Like?
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Yeah, so my pregnancy was actually okay. Not much morning sickness,
lots of headaches, lots of back pain. I started growing
very quickly, and my eight week skin, I had a bump.
By twelve weeks, I've got a belly like it was.
It progressed very quickly. The babies all also had their
own placentas, so I was growing rapidly. I was having
fortnightly appointments down at Raynal Shore. They were doing cervical checks,
(18:33):
checking on all the babies. These ultra sounds would go
over two hours. Suddenly, on my twenty fourth week appointment,
my cervix had dropped drastically and it was because I
was pushing myself way too hard. I was just trying
to do way too much. It was just silly. So
I ended up in hospital. And while I was in hospital,
they did like a rested test on me where when
(18:54):
I woke up in the morning, I wasn't allowed to
move and they wheeled me to this like science life,
and they put this big mask on my face and
I had to sit still and just breathe into it
for fifteen minutes. And anybody that's been pregnant before like
sitting like I was in a wheelchair for fifteen minutes,
not moving with a big mask on your face. I was.
It was ridiculous. But this was all to calculate how
(19:17):
much energy I was burning at a rested heart rate,
to see how much food I had to eat. So
this test ended up telling them that I needed to
eat three thousand calories a day, three thousand calories on
a gestational diabetes hospital diet was foul like, and I
was in hospital for two months. They're like on a
(19:37):
two week menu rotation. In the hospital. I'd gone through
everything it was, and I was so full, Like I
was so big at thirty weeks I think I was
measuring it. Fifty two weeks pregnant. I was massive and
my lungs were getting compressed. I couldn't breathe properly because
my lungs were so squished. I couldn't eat much because
my stomach was getting squished so pretty much. I couldn't
(19:59):
have been meals. They were just loading me up on milk,
this particular milk they had like in a little carden,
and like crackers and cheese and their fruit, and I
was trying my best to eat as much as I could.
But I just did what I could. I soon figured
out how to work out uber eats down there, and
I'm just quickly going outside for some fresh air, and
(20:20):
mc donald's would arrive and I'd scoff it down and
then walk back in. And I had to keep a
close eye with sugars and things like that. But the
hospital food got real old, real quick. When I was
on Yeah, that many calories a day.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
So Taylor was in hospital almost two months before her birth,
a huge amount of time to be away from home.
So how did she keep persanity?
Speaker 3 (20:42):
But I just made sure I had a routine. I
wasn't on full bed rest. I was still allowed to
get up and walk around, so I tried to have
a routine of get up, have a shower, make my bed.
I bought all my own bedding in the room was
very much my room. I had photo frames, I had
artwork like, I had my own fan. It was my room.
One of my girlfriends bought me like a really nice
(21:03):
haircare routine, so I always get excited for my hair
washing days, even though i'd have to sit down to
wash my hair cause I'd get so puffed I would
do that, I'd go for a walk outside, come back in.
So in the hospital, the TV was like I think
I've seen iPads bigger than the TV that was in
my room. I remember the Jilarus were playing, and when
my friends plays in the Jiales and I really wanted
(21:25):
to watch their game. I would just watch Tipping Point
like Deal, like all those little shows. I felt like
my nan like I had scheduled times to watch TV.
I think I read maybe two three books. I wasn't
that big of a reader, but sudoku, like I was
a Sudoku queen. When Sean would come down and I
was like, right, we're having a cop because I knew
(21:45):
that I was better than him at sadoaku, so I
was like, right, we're versing each other in sadoku and
a lot of you know, Sean and I are very competitive,
so any game that came out with a winner, we
would be playing that, and the nurses would come in
to do my blood pressure and stuff, and like, hold on,
it's going to be high at the moment because I'm
about to smash him in, you know, So just give us.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Five minutes and come back coming up.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
I definitely had some times where it was rough, and
I remember just bawling my eyes out, going like I
just I'm gassed, Like I'm mentally exhausted. You want to
go as far as you can for your babies, and
you feel guilty for thinking like I can't keep going anymore.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
For those of us who have only ever had one
baby in our time is at a time, it's not
easy to comprehend how they all actually fit in there,
Like can you feel each baby individually move?
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Yeah. So while I was in the hospital, they were
only doing an ultrasound on me once a week and
then a full anatomy scan every fortnight. And during the
time of having ultrasounds, the way we monitor the babies
was all through me. I was in tune with each baby.
They all had their own placenta, so they were all
in a fixed position and I could tell when it
(23:02):
was baby one or baby two, baby three, or baby four.
And they would just say to me every day, have
you felt baby one, two, three, and four, and I'd
go yep, iuck and feel yep, yep, yep. They're all
doing this, that and the other. I could tell from
their movement who was who, and it has transferred across.
They're very similar now to what they were in the womb.
It's very weird. Yeah, I was very in tuned with
(23:24):
all of them.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Taylor's resilience and positivity during the epic job of growing
four babies is really incredible, but she admits it wasn't
always an easiestlog. She relied on an excellent support system
to get her through.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
And I was progressing really well. So our goal was
to get me to thirty two weeks. And they even
had like a little betting chart in their office about
how far do we reckon Taylor's going to get And
we all had bets, and I had a white board
up in my room and I had like a tally
going of how many days I'd get to And that
was what helped me get through a lot too. Was Okay,
need to get to this next milestone because the statistics
(24:03):
the serious effects that babies can have from being born
early are very very serious. But there's like a turning
point at like twenty eight thirty weeks, Like once you
get to that milestone, you're coming into a safety area.
So I definitely had some times where it was rough.
I remember my social worker coming in and just bawling
(24:25):
my eyes out, going like I just I'm gassed, Like
I'm mentally exhausted. You want to go as far as
you can for your babies, and you feel guilty for
thinking like I can't keep going anymore. So I was
really really battling in my mind some days. And there
was days where they would come in and go, how
you doing today, And I was just a blubbering mess.
(24:47):
So I really had to have a strong support team
around me. And Sean was just like full credit to
the man. He was amazing. He wasn't like I get
emotional talking about it because he was like a lot
of people talk about my efforts in this pregnancy, but
he made just as much of an effort and a
sacrifice for our family too, because he was still working
(25:08):
full time. He's a high school teacher, and he continued
working and after work he'd go home and he was
working on renovations on the house, and then he would
finish those at like eight o'clock at night and then
drive an hour and a half down to sleep the
night on a lounge chair in the hospital, and then
would get up at five o'clock and drive back straight
(25:28):
into work and do all that every single day for
two months. He didn't skip a day and the only
reason for him to come down on those days was
to be my support, Like there was no other purpose
for him to be there other than to be my support.
So he played a big role in keeping my mental
well being positive in that really long time.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
So after Taylor got to thirty weeks, D day or
Q day loomed, but she still had a definite goal.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
For a funny reason, my.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Doctor had a holiday looked in just before that. So
it's like, Taylor, we're getting you to thirty two weeks,
and so I'm holding on for dear life. But I'm
starting to get headaches and starting to get a bit
of blurries. So my blood pressure is starting to come up,
which I had nothing this entire time while I was
in there, and the Braxton Hicks was getting hectic. My
stomach was morphing in all different shapes, and like my
(26:20):
stomach would be pushed over to one side and then
be pushed and stuck in this other side. And then
I was having like contractions and I was timing them,
and doctors were coming down and feeling my belly and
they're like, it feels like you having contractions, and I'm like,
you're telling me, like, yeah, it does feel like that.
So I'm getting cervical examinations like every night for a
few nights and they're not fun. And then it was like, okay,
(26:44):
you're looking like you're potentially getting clancier. Yeah. So I
was like, look, I want to be proactive. Let's not
wait till something gets bad and do something. The babies
are healthy, I'm ready, let's go. Let's get the show
on the road. And the nick you needed to have
extra staff on. They had done practice rehearsals of the
cesarean and there was over forty people in the room.
(27:04):
There took two hours to go through a practice rehearsal.
They had thought of everything. I had got special approval
to get a photographer in the room, which I was
really excited about. They come in and they're like, all right, Taylor,
we've come up with a decision. Let's be proactive and
you're going to give birth in forty eight hours, and
I was like, oh my god, Okay, like, this is
(27:28):
what we've been waiting for. I guess this is what
I've been in here preparing for. It's going to happen.
And the whole time I've just been focused so much
on getting further and getting further. I hadn't thought about
the birth yet because I was like, no, I'm not
thinking about the birth. I need to just focus on
staying pregnant.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
So at thirty two weeks pregnant, Taylor readied herself for
the biggest day of her life while the staff at
the hospital prepped for a multiple's birth that they hadn't
had to attempt since nineteen ninety five. In Part two,
you'll hear how Taylor's mine blowing birth went down.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
It felt like I was walking down the aisle of
my wedding again, Like I come in and everybody is
like lining the wall, like everybody's got their back against
the wall. Everyone's eyes were just on me, and I
was like, oh my god, this is happening.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Plus what the first moments of her bub's lives were like.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
And I was a bit worried because I'm like, I'm
not really feeling much emotion? Is there something wrong with me?
Like I'm not. Everyone's talks about like this, like crazy
amounts of emotions you feel when you go into birth,
and I'm not feeling anything. Then they just show one
baby and show and I just burst into tears and
we're like, oh my god, there's actually a baby. There's
babies in there. This is real.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
And what happens when you get four newborns home.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
I came home and there wasn't a toilet in the house.
Sean was trying to surprise me with this bathroom, but
he thought I was going to be in hospital for
so much longer that we had to get a camping
toilet out on the deck like I was postpartum using
a camping toilet outside. It was wild, absolutely wild.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
But before we hear more of this amazing story, let's
check in with our wonderful resident pediatrician, doctor Golly on
just how likely Taylor's story.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Is naturally quads. It's close to one in a million.
It's basically one in eight hundred thousand pregnancies roughly, and
then if you're talking identical, that's four identical humans. The
probability extends out to one in fifteen million. When you
compare that to the incidence of twins naturally, it's roughly
one in two hundred and fifty pregnancies. But interestingly, the
(29:31):
chances of multiples like twins, it increases with higher maternal age,
so it's more common in women over thirty five. But
it's also more common if there's a family history of twins.
And then there's IVF, So here the chances when it
comes to IVF pregnancies, the chances of twins is as
high as thirty percent, so almost one in three, and
(29:51):
the chances of quads with IVF it's reported differently in
different centers, but we're probably in the vicinity of half
to one percent.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
And why is there a higher chance with IVF pregnancies?
Speaker 4 (30:04):
So there are a couple of reasons here. Firstly, traditional
older IVF used to transfer multiple embryos in the hope
that one of them sticks, so you're logically increasing the
chance of more than one implanting. But also before that,
there's a lot of ovarian stimulation, and when you have
that involved, it means women might ovulate two eggs instead
(30:25):
of just one, which increases the chances of die. Psychotic
non identical twins. But also this usually happens on the
background of a longer fertility journey, so we are talking
about older women on average, and again, as we mentioned before,
that does increase the chance of twinning.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Part two of Taylor's utterly incredible story is available now
wherever you get your podcasts. You won't believe how much
weight she lost in the twenty four hours after birth,
plus the size of her insane placenta.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
When it was removed.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
If you're interested in sharing your birth story with us
on Diary of a Birth, we'd love to hear from you.
Details are in the show notes. Diary of a Birth
was hosted by me Kasenya Lukicic with expert input from
doctor Gollie, Audio production by Scott Stronach and our executive
producer is Georgie Page.
I'm Kissena Lukic, and this is diary of a birth.
I'll never forget the day that I found out that
I was having my first baby.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
After two years of infertility.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
And the constant cycle of two weeks of hope, then
two weeks of disappointment and anxiety, we got that positive
pregnancy test and it was one of the most incredible
days of my life. And if you, like me, struggle
with falling pregnant, you'll know what a wondrous surprise it
is to be told that finally you're with child, just
(00:35):
like today's mum.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
And then she puts on the sound and it's got
the strong, like the strongest heartbeat ever, and oh, I
gets amercial because that sound is like it's the heartbeat
that's coming from inside you, and that's your baby, and
that's the sound like that you have longed for for
so long. We're just wailing like we're balley.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
But for the woman telling this birth story, the moment
was extra surprising.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Four times as shocking, you might say.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
So she's put the wand on my belly and I've
seen like multiple like black circles, and then she's ripped
it away and I see like the color drop from
her face and I've instantly gone and she's gone. She goes,
this isn't twins, this is she's what even is? Is quads?
Quad quadruplets.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
You won't believe the shocking rollercoaster of emotions she went
through over an incredible pregnancy.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
I was so scared. There was not an inch of
excitement in me, to be completely honest, Like I was
just so overwhelmed with fear because this was just so
unknown to me, Like I just didn't know what was happening.
Four babies, what the hell? Like I can't carry four babies?
Like am I gonna die? Yet?
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Ready for the most incredible pregnancy story ever.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
At thirty weeks I think I was measuring it. Fifty
two weeks pregnant, I was massive and my lungs were
getting compressed. I couldn't breathe proper because my lungs were
so squished. I couldn't eat much because my stomach was
getting squished.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
So let's meet today's mum.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Hi, my name is Taylor, and this is the diary
of my birth with michauadruplets Daisy, Archie, Billy, and Charlie.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Taylor chewed hope Glacken is nothing short of a superwoman.
Her story is unbelievable and you're in for such a
treat just to hear her tell it. But let's start
back before her life took its crazy turn.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Yeah, so life before the Cords was just very usual.
Sean and I met in high school, being together now
for over twelve years. We're very local to where we are,
We're kind of born and raised in this area, and
we're very family orientated people, so been together for a while,
got married back in twenty twenty two, host COVID kind
(02:53):
of thing, and I have always been very full was
short about wanting to start a family, So that's something
that we always knew would come. We just didn't know
that it would come this quick. But yeah, we're very
sport oriententended people, very social. We love our friends, but
we're also real home people. We love getting around and
doing DIY and yeah, that was kind of just us
(03:14):
go around, travel camping, and things have changed very quickly.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Taylor had endured a lot of health issues in the past.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
So falling pregnant wasn't what I expected. So back when
I was in my very very early twenties, I was
told I had pcos so polcistic ovary syndrome, and I
was kind of told, do you want to have babies now?
And I said no, but I do down the future.
So we kind of just brushed it to the side
and I just continued on managing my symptoms. But it
(03:42):
wasn't until we got engaged and I knew that we
wanted to have babies coming up, and so that's when
I started preparing my body. Went and seeing my doctor
and said, look, this is what's going to be our
plan for the next few years. Can you help me
start getting my body ready. So we started doing a
bit of investigating and it led me very quickly to
specialists and surprised to me, I had stage four endometriosis.
(04:06):
So I didn't necessarily have painful periods or the pain
as such during a mentrual cycle like a lot of
people explain with the edemitriosis. I had other issues, bower
issues and pain like that because my ovary was attached
to my bow with endemetriosis. So I was lucky enough
to have all that removed and keep my ovary intact,
(04:28):
which was great. And they also seen that, yeah, my
ovaries were quite enlarged because of the PCOS two. So
all of that all cleaned up and they were like, Okay,
you should be really fertile, now go on your way,
And that most definitely wasn't the case.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Like so many women, Taylor realized that while she knew
how babies were made, she didn't really know how to
fall pregnant.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Just kept going with trying. Was kind of a bit
naive in the situation. I was studying to be a
primary teacher and I still didn't know that much about
the female bod, Like I just I was really naive.
It was amazing how much I didn't know. And here
I am being a woman for what I was twenty
seven I think at the time, and I didn't even
(05:10):
know these things on how to get pregnant. But anyways,
we kept trying, and yeah, didn't work. I was then
put on it's called lectrosol, so it encourages ovulation. Because
I wasn't ovulating. I wasn't having a period, So I
was put on medication to enforce a period, to enforce ovulation,
and still nothing was happening, no ovulation. I got put
(05:32):
to a fertility specialist. She goes, you're not getting pregnant
in any way shape or form on this medication at
the moment. So in order to get me just to ovulate,
she had to triple my dose for double the time
with this lectrosol, and we're tracking, I was getting blood
tests tracking when I'm ovulating. Here we are trying to
have sex every second day, Like it's just ridiculous. It
(05:54):
just makes everything feel so procedural, and it just takes
the fun out of everything, and it's just not the
way that you plan to get pregnant. It takes a
surprise out of it, it takes the joy out of Yeah,
it just made everything feel really medical. But that's what
we had to do, and so be it will do it.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
After a year of tracking ovulation and not falling pregnant,
Taylor's next step was IVF, but the doctors warned her
that it wasn't going to be straightforward for her.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
So my ovar is with chocolate block with follicles, which
I was like, oh, that's great. Doesn't that mean I
have this really high chance? But how she explained it
to me was they're so full. Nothing can reach its
full maturity inside your ovaries, and so you have these
really immature follicles. But with IVF. Their job is to
stimulate those follicles, and then they give you this drug
(06:48):
that gets you to release those follicles. And naturally you
only normally release one or two follicles here and there.
But here I am with chocol block overariaes. I think
there's upwards of maybe even sixty and per overy. Stupid number.
So I was given like a really really low dose
and it came to the collection phase and I remember
(07:08):
them going, Taylor, did you hear that We've got your
first egg? Got your first egg? And then the rest
was a blur. I remember them coming in and saying, Taylor,
we got thirty and I was like, thirty eggs? What Like?
I know friends and family that have had IVF and
they're getting four. I'm long thirty.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Five days after Taylor's collection, an incredible fourteen embryos had
survived to the blastocyst stage, but then she fell ill
and was hospitalized with ovarian hyperstimulation, which took a few
months to recover from, meaning a delay in transferring any
of the embryos into her So remember that Taylor was
still on letrosola this stage, as her PCOS meant she
(07:50):
didn't naturally ovulate but she was three months off the
IVF stimulation. Finally, three months after the retrieval date, it
was time to implant the most viable embryo.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
When you're going for your transfer, you have regular blood
tests to catch when you're ovulating, so as soon as
you're ovulate five days later, you must have that transfer.
And they need to catch that ovulation window very carefully,
and we go for the embryo transfer. It's just a
wild experience. I was just reading through my journal notes
(08:22):
about it. And you work so hard for this day,
and you think about getting pregnant, and you work so
hard to get these eggs and get them to blastosses
to get them to be an embryo, and you go
in for this transfer appointment and it's five minutes, it's
done and dusted. It's just like you're going in to
get your eyebrows done. To these ladies, they're just so
(08:42):
good at it. They're like, we've picked out your embryo
number five. Here it is, we're about to transfer. It's
just one embryo. It's just one embryo. And so they
transfer it. We see the little light flash. Those that
do if no, apparently you look for the flash on
the ultrasound machine. It's apparently a telltale signed to see
(09:03):
if the embryo has gone through. And they're like, okay,
if you go, we'll give you a call in two
weeks to let you know if that's happened. So then
you go on this two week dreaded weight. It is
the longest two weeks of your life. Like as soon
as you walk out that appointment, first of all, you're like,
I don't want to pooh because you're scared youre going
to push this little embryo out. But they're like, don't worry,
(09:24):
it won't happen. It's not going to fall out. But
you're walking around with your legs held tired, like something's
going to fall out of you. But yeah, two weeks
we waited and it was so so stressful. But I
instantly felt my boobs were getting bigger. I was feeling
a bit different. But I was way too scared to
verbalize any of this because I didn't want to put
(09:46):
any bad voodoo out there. I just was okay, let's
just pray to the gods because statistically, your first embryo
transferred nomally isn't that successful.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
As someone who's gone through IVF. Let me tell you,
the waiting periods are absolute torture. It is a constant cycle.
It's two weeks of hope, excitement. It's did this injection work?
It's my eggs in the right place. Is my body
doing the right thing? Are my hormones doing the right thing?
(10:15):
You feel like a pin cushion. Waiting for phone calls
from embryologists is another certain kind of hell because you're constantly.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Waiting for the phone call.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
You're staring at your phone waiting to see what's happening.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
And you do not want to miss that phone call.
It is excruciating.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
The day that Taylor was due to receive her blood
test results, the call came through at eleven am, but
she torturously left the voicemail unheard so she could get
the news with Sean that evening.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Before we listen to it, we both say, okay, all right,
if this doesn't work, and we're pretty sure it hasn't worked,
because we're looking at statistics here, we have another thirteen
and goes this isn't give up stage. We need to
stay positive in this journey because this journey can go
on for quite a long time. And anyways, we press play,
and she says, congratulations still makes me so emotional because
(11:12):
that's the day you hope and you pray for. And oh,
like we had wished of that day for so long
and it was there and we were just like, oh,
we just couldn't grasp what was happening around us, and
we just held each other for so long and we
were just like, oh my god, like it's happened. We're pregnant.
(11:33):
At that point, we're going, oh my god, we're pregnant
with one baby, and gosh, things changed coming up. And
then we walk out the door and then the weight
just crushes me and I'm just in Shan's arms and
we're just trying to get back to the car and
I'm just hysterical, and we don't speak, like we don't
even know what to say to each other.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Every mm waits with baited bread for the all important
dating scan, when you find out how many weeks pregnant
you're measuring and the approximate date that you'll be blowing
out those birthday candles each year. It may be the
day you see their first tiny, wriggly arms and hear
their strong, healthy heartbeats. Eight weeks later, Taylor and Sean
returned to their IVF clinic to have their scan, and
(12:21):
Taylor's account of finding out just how many bubs were
in her stomach is stunningly vulnerable and honest.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
As much as it's incredible, I need to be honest
about how I felt in that situation because there's a
lot of emotions that come with this. So we're waiting
in the waiting room, and aha, imagine if it's twins,
La la la. So we go in, we sit down,
we're in a room, Sean's beside me, We've got masks on,
and there's a big TV in front of us, and
(12:49):
the sonographers are my right. Sean's on my left shoulder,
and she's lovely. And I've seen a fair few ultra
sounds of my times with my PCOS and my adometriosis
and getting ready to have this baby, so I kind
of have gotten a grasp about what a belly should
look like on an ultra seal machine. Sean doesn't know
what he's looking at it. He could be looking at
(13:09):
a PlayStation screen for early nosing. And so she's put
the wand on my belly, and I've seen like multiple
like black circles and then she's ripped it away and
I see like the color drop from her face and
I've instantly gone and she's gone. Sean's going, why is everyone?
(13:30):
And like what's going on here? Like I'm trying to
say things, nothing's really coming out. And she just put
her hand on my leg and she said, Taylor, you
have multiple pregnancies in here. I have to count to
know how many you have in here. I can't even
like fear. It was just fear. And so she started
(13:51):
counting and she's put the warmth on. She's gone, okay, one,
all right, two, and I'm like, holy crap. And she's
gone three and I'm like, oh my god. Three, and
then she's gone four. Oh, oh my god. For I'm
instantly hysterical, like I can't breathe. I'm like I could
(14:15):
feel my heart coming out of my chest. I was
trying to hold back that big like cry, like I'm
trying to regulate my breathing. And I remember like consciously thinking, Taylor,
catch your breath, Catch your breath. You're gonna faint. Catch
your breath. And she said, did you guys have sex
after the trance plant? And we said no, no, no,
not after no, like you told us not too after
(14:38):
She's gone, okay, let me just count again. Sean and
I trying to breathe, and I've just grabbed Sean's hands.
I'm squeezing it for life on my shoulder. And I
was so scared, like there was not an inch of
excitement in me, to be completely honest, like I was
just so overwhelmed with fear because I didn't know. This
was just so unknown to me, Like I just didn't
know what was happening. And to me, instantly, I thought,
(15:01):
this pregnancy is scrapped, Like this is not a viable pregnancy.
Four babies? What the hell? Like I can't carry four babies?
Like am I gonna die? Like I literally thought, like
could I die because of this? And so the next
part was to go check what was viable and she said, Okay, well,
I guess we start this kind of the way we
(15:21):
do a twins, and I'll start at the cervix. Looks
at the first sack. Yep, there's a baby, and there
was a yoke sack in there as well. And then
she puts on the sound and it's got the strong,
like the strongest heartbeat ever, and oh, it gets emotional
because that sound is like you see everybody's videos of
like this heartbeat sound. You're like, oh, that's nice, But
(15:43):
then it's the heartbeat that's coming from inside you, and
that's your baby, and that's the sound like that you
have longed for for so long. We're just wailing, like
we're balling, and I was like, oh my god, I
hadn't even heard the word quadruplet. Like all three of
us just stop and go, oh my god. The scenario
has said she's been doing this for over thirty years
(16:04):
and she's never seen it before. She goes get in
touch with your doctor quick, and the realistic side of
it all starts really really becoming quite heavy. Yeah, struggle
to not let your mind go there about is this viable?
Is this safe? Is everything going to be okay? And
then we walk out the door and then the weight
(16:24):
just crushes me and I'm just in Shawn's arms and
we're just trying to get back to the car and
I'm just hysterical, and we don't speak, like we don't
even know what to say to each other. We're just
not speaking, but we're just we're just in that moment
right then and there, and we're just driving along. It's
about an hour drive to get home, and we had
to stop at Macis because I started getting hungry. I
(16:45):
needed a six pack of nuggets asap. And we've gone
through mc donald's and I've just said, Sean, what is
this like we were hoping to get three kids across
our lifetime, like what we're going to do? And on
the way home, we pretty much just ended up saying that, Okay,
(17:05):
if I'm well and the babies are well, we'll continue
with what we have to do. And we're in a
very amazing country with an incredible healthcare system, and we're
going to follow the guidance of our doctors. And as
much as the baby's health is important, so is mine,
and we're going to find this medium between both and
(17:26):
keep everybody safe.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
I'll never forget the moment when I told my parents
that we were pregnant. It happened straight after I found
out with Dan, and it was one of the best
moments of our life. But the reactions of Taylor's family
and friends was utter disbelief.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yeah, we went home, we told our families and it
was weird. It was how do you tell your family
that you're pregnant with quadruplets, Like we just walked in
and we just handed them the photo and we're like,
we're having quadruplets, and I believed us and then they're like,
oh my god.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
So one of the biggest questions I have about having
cords is what was your pregnancy Like?
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Yeah, so my pregnancy was actually okay. Not much morning sickness,
lots of headaches, lots of back pain. I started growing
very quickly, and my eight week skin, I had a bump.
By twelve weeks, I've got a belly like it was.
It progressed very quickly. The babies all also had their
own placentas, so I was growing rapidly. I was having
fortnightly appointments down at Raynal Shore. They were doing cervical checks,
(18:33):
checking on all the babies. These ultra sounds would go
over two hours. Suddenly, on my twenty fourth week appointment,
my cervix had dropped drastically and it was because I
was pushing myself way too hard. I was just trying
to do way too much. It was just silly. So
I ended up in hospital. And while I was in hospital,
they did like a rested test on me where when
(18:54):
I woke up in the morning, I wasn't allowed to
move and they wheeled me to this like science life,
and they put this big mask on my face and
I had to sit still and just breathe into it
for fifteen minutes. And anybody that's been pregnant before like
sitting like I was in a wheelchair for fifteen minutes,
not moving with a big mask on your face. I was.
It was ridiculous. But this was all to calculate how
(19:17):
much energy I was burning at a rested heart rate,
to see how much food I had to eat. So
this test ended up telling them that I needed to
eat three thousand calories a day, three thousand calories on
a gestational diabetes hospital diet was foul like, and I
was in hospital for two months. They're like on a
(19:37):
two week menu rotation. In the hospital. I'd gone through
everything it was, and I was so full, Like I
was so big at thirty weeks I think I was
measuring it. Fifty two weeks pregnant. I was massive and
my lungs were getting compressed. I couldn't breathe properly because
my lungs were so squished. I couldn't eat much because
my stomach was getting squished so pretty much. I couldn't
(19:59):
have been meals. They were just loading me up on milk,
this particular milk they had like in a little carden,
and like crackers and cheese and their fruit, and I
was trying my best to eat as much as I could.
But I just did what I could. I soon figured
out how to work out uber eats down there, and
I'm just quickly going outside for some fresh air, and
(20:20):
mc donald's would arrive and I'd scoff it down and
then walk back in. And I had to keep a
close eye with sugars and things like that. But the
hospital food got real old, real quick. When I was
on Yeah, that many calories a day.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
So Taylor was in hospital almost two months before her birth,
a huge amount of time to be away from home.
So how did she keep persanity?
Speaker 3 (20:42):
But I just made sure I had a routine. I
wasn't on full bed rest. I was still allowed to
get up and walk around, so I tried to have
a routine of get up, have a shower, make my bed.
I bought all my own bedding in the room was
very much my room. I had photo frames, I had
artwork like, I had my own fan. It was my room.
One of my girlfriends bought me like a really nice
(21:03):
haircare routine, so I always get excited for my hair
washing days, even though i'd have to sit down to
wash my hair cause I'd get so puffed I would
do that, I'd go for a walk outside, come back in.
So in the hospital, the TV was like I think
I've seen iPads bigger than the TV that was in
my room. I remember the Jilarus were playing, and when
my friends plays in the Jiales and I really wanted
(21:25):
to watch their game. I would just watch Tipping Point
like Deal, like all those little shows. I felt like
my nan like I had scheduled times to watch TV.
I think I read maybe two three books. I wasn't
that big of a reader, but sudoku, like I was
a Sudoku queen. When Sean would come down and I
was like, right, we're having a cop because I knew
(21:45):
that I was better than him at sadoaku, so I
was like, right, we're versing each other in sadoku and
a lot of you know, Sean and I are very competitive,
so any game that came out with a winner, we
would be playing that, and the nurses would come in
to do my blood pressure and stuff, and like, hold on,
it's going to be high at the moment because I'm
about to smash him in, you know, So just give us.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Five minutes and come back coming up.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
I definitely had some times where it was rough, and
I remember just bawling my eyes out, going like I
just I'm gassed, Like I'm mentally exhausted. You want to
go as far as you can for your babies, and
you feel guilty for thinking like I can't keep going anymore.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
For those of us who have only ever had one
baby in our time is at a time, it's not
easy to comprehend how they all actually fit in there,
Like can you feel each baby individually move?
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Yeah. So while I was in the hospital, they were
only doing an ultrasound on me once a week and
then a full anatomy scan every fortnight. And during the
time of having ultrasounds, the way we monitor the babies
was all through me. I was in tune with each baby.
They all had their own placenta, so they were all
in a fixed position and I could tell when it
(23:02):
was baby one or baby two, baby three, or baby four.
And they would just say to me every day, have
you felt baby one, two, three, and four, and I'd
go yep, iuck and feel yep, yep, yep. They're all
doing this, that and the other. I could tell from
their movement who was who, and it has transferred across.
They're very similar now to what they were in the womb.
It's very weird. Yeah, I was very in tuned with
(23:24):
all of them.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Taylor's resilience and positivity during the epic job of growing
four babies is really incredible, but she admits it wasn't
always an easiestlog. She relied on an excellent support system
to get her through.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
And I was progressing really well. So our goal was
to get me to thirty two weeks. And they even
had like a little betting chart in their office about
how far do we reckon Taylor's going to get And
we all had bets, and I had a white board
up in my room and I had like a tally
going of how many days I'd get to And that
was what helped me get through a lot too. Was Okay,
need to get to this next milestone because the statistics
(24:03):
the serious effects that babies can have from being born
early are very very serious. But there's like a turning
point at like twenty eight thirty weeks, Like once you
get to that milestone, you're coming into a safety area.
So I definitely had some times where it was rough.
I remember my social worker coming in and just bawling
(24:25):
my eyes out, going like I just I'm gassed, Like
I'm mentally exhausted. You want to go as far as
you can for your babies, and you feel guilty for
thinking like I can't keep going anymore. So I was
really really battling in my mind some days. And there
was days where they would come in and go, how
you doing today, And I was just a blubbering mess.
(24:47):
So I really had to have a strong support team
around me. And Sean was just like full credit to
the man. He was amazing. He wasn't like I get
emotional talking about it because he was like a lot
of people talk about my efforts in this pregnancy, but
he made just as much of an effort and a
sacrifice for our family too, because he was still working
(25:08):
full time. He's a high school teacher, and he continued
working and after work he'd go home and he was
working on renovations on the house, and then he would
finish those at like eight o'clock at night and then
drive an hour and a half down to sleep the
night on a lounge chair in the hospital, and then
would get up at five o'clock and drive back straight
(25:28):
into work and do all that every single day for
two months. He didn't skip a day and the only
reason for him to come down on those days was
to be my support, Like there was no other purpose
for him to be there other than to be my support.
So he played a big role in keeping my mental
well being positive in that really long time.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
So after Taylor got to thirty weeks, D day or
Q day loomed, but she still had a definite goal.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
For a funny reason, my.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Doctor had a holiday looked in just before that. So
it's like, Taylor, we're getting you to thirty two weeks,
and so I'm holding on for dear life. But I'm
starting to get headaches and starting to get a bit
of blurries. So my blood pressure is starting to come up,
which I had nothing this entire time while I was
in there, and the Braxton Hicks was getting hectic. My
stomach was morphing in all different shapes, and like my
(26:20):
stomach would be pushed over to one side and then
be pushed and stuck in this other side. And then
I was having like contractions and I was timing them,
and doctors were coming down and feeling my belly and
they're like, it feels like you having contractions, and I'm like,
you're telling me, like, yeah, it does feel like that.
So I'm getting cervical examinations like every night for a
few nights and they're not fun. And then it was like, okay,
(26:44):
you're looking like you're potentially getting clancier. Yeah. So I
was like, look, I want to be proactive. Let's not
wait till something gets bad and do something. The babies
are healthy, I'm ready, let's go. Let's get the show
on the road. And the nick you needed to have
extra staff on. They had done practice rehearsals of the
cesarean and there was over forty people in the room.
(27:04):
There took two hours to go through a practice rehearsal.
They had thought of everything. I had got special approval
to get a photographer in the room, which I was
really excited about. They come in and they're like, all right, Taylor,
we've come up with a decision. Let's be proactive and
you're going to give birth in forty eight hours, and
I was like, oh my god, Okay, like, this is
(27:28):
what we've been waiting for. I guess this is what
I've been in here preparing for. It's going to happen.
And the whole time I've just been focused so much
on getting further and getting further. I hadn't thought about
the birth yet because I was like, no, I'm not
thinking about the birth. I need to just focus on
staying pregnant.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
So at thirty two weeks pregnant, Taylor readied herself for
the biggest day of her life while the staff at
the hospital prepped for a multiple's birth that they hadn't
had to attempt since nineteen ninety five. In Part two,
you'll hear how Taylor's mine blowing birth went down.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
It felt like I was walking down the aisle of
my wedding again, Like I come in and everybody is
like lining the wall, like everybody's got their back against
the wall. Everyone's eyes were just on me, and I
was like, oh my god, this is happening.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Plus what the first moments of her bub's lives were like.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
And I was a bit worried because I'm like, I'm
not really feeling much emotion? Is there something wrong with me?
Like I'm not. Everyone's talks about like this, like crazy
amounts of emotions you feel when you go into birth,
and I'm not feeling anything. Then they just show one
baby and show and I just burst into tears and
we're like, oh my god, there's actually a baby. There's
babies in there. This is real.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
And what happens when you get four newborns home.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
I came home and there wasn't a toilet in the house.
Sean was trying to surprise me with this bathroom, but
he thought I was going to be in hospital for
so much longer that we had to get a camping
toilet out on the deck like I was postpartum using
a camping toilet outside. It was wild, absolutely wild.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
But before we hear more of this amazing story, let's
check in with our wonderful resident pediatrician, doctor Golly on
just how likely Taylor's story.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Is naturally quads. It's close to one in a million.
It's basically one in eight hundred thousand pregnancies roughly, and
then if you're talking identical, that's four identical humans. The
probability extends out to one in fifteen million. When you
compare that to the incidence of twins naturally, it's roughly
one in two hundred and fifty pregnancies. But interestingly, the
(29:31):
chances of multiples like twins, it increases with higher maternal age,
so it's more common in women over thirty five. But
it's also more common if there's a family history of twins.
And then there's IVF, So here the chances when it
comes to IVF pregnancies, the chances of twins is as
high as thirty percent, so almost one in three, and
(29:51):
the chances of quads with IVF it's reported differently in
different centers, but we're probably in the vicinity of half
to one percent.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
And why is there a higher chance with IVF pregnancies?
Speaker 4 (30:04):
So there are a couple of reasons here. Firstly, traditional
older IVF used to transfer multiple embryos in the hope
that one of them sticks, so you're logically increasing the
chance of more than one implanting. But also before that,
there's a lot of ovarian stimulation, and when you have
that involved, it means women might ovulate two eggs instead
(30:25):
of just one, which increases the chances of die. Psychotic
non identical twins. But also this usually happens on the
background of a longer fertility journey, so we are talking
about older women on average, and again, as we mentioned before,
that does increase the chance of twinning.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Part two of Taylor's utterly incredible story is available now
wherever you get your podcasts. You won't believe how much
weight she lost in the twenty four hours after birth,
plus the size of her insane placenta.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
When it was removed.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
If you're interested in sharing your birth story with us
on Diary of a Birth, we'd love to hear from you.
Details are in the show notes. Diary of a Birth
was hosted by me Kasenya Lukicic with expert input from
doctor Gollie, Audio production by Scott Stronach and our executive
producer is Georgie Page.
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