The odds of having three identical babies are just 1 in 200 million births. And the birth of these ‘tridentical’ triplets has defied odds of 200million to one – with an identical set of three siblings almost unheard of. In April, Thomas, Edward and Harry Chalwin were delivered by Cᴀᴇsᴀʀɪᴀɴ sᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ at 34 weeks weighing just 4lbs each.
After being born on April 13 at Stoke Mandeville Hᴏsᴘɪᴛᴀʟin Buckinghamshire, the trio had to use sᴛᴏᴍᴀᴄʜ ғᴇᴇᴅɪɴɢ ᴛᴜʙᴇs for the first three weeks of their life. The brothers are now back at home in High Wycombe, weighing in at a healthy 12 pounds apiece. Claire,33, a former nurse, revealed that initially, she had to paint their fingernails in various colors to tell them apart. She said:” It was challenging in the early stages, which is why I came up with the color-ᴄᴏᴅɪɴɢ concept. Once a week, I’d use it to make sure we always knew which was which. I can now tell them apart with ease.”
After a ᴛʀᴀɢɪᴄ ʟᴏss last June when they found they were carrying triplets, she and her husband Paul, a recruitment consultant, were anxious for a sibling for their three-year-old son William. A normal ᴘʀᴇɢɴᴀɴᴄʏ has a 4,000 to one chance of producing triplets. It’s nearly unheard of to find two identical sets. Claire said:” They are a beautiful gift, I adore them all, and I am lucky”.
