'Miracle' triplets who shared a placenta defy doctor's expectations

Katie and Nathan Barfield are welcoming three new additions to their family. The 'miracle' triplets, Isabelle, Amelia and Georgia had a "one in 300,000" chance of being conceived. 

But their ability to defy the odds doesn't stop there. The triplets were the first  monochorionic triamniotic triplets to be born in the hospital in 15 years, this means that all three babies shared the same placenta. 

Katie and Nathan, who already have a son with cerebral palsy, were warned about the dangers of the shared placenta.

"We were already high risk because they were identical triplets, but we were told they were super high risk because they were all sharing the same placenta," Katie told local media. 

Despite this, the parents wanted to give the girls a fighting chance. Often, in cases where two twins have the same placenta, one will feed off the other. 

"So often we'll see one big twin and one small scrawny twin… the risk of this increases with triplets sharing the one sac," the couple's doctor said. 

They progressed with the pregnancy and at 24 weeks their doctor "broke a smile" for the first time. One of the triplets developed a growth restriction and had to fight to be fed, but their parents remained hopeful.

They made it to 32 weeks, when the triplets were delivered by C-section. Isabelle, Amelia and Georgia are all now doing well, with Isabella nad Amelia already out of their incubators with hope that Georgia will soon follow suit. 

"We always wanted more children, about three to four, but we just happen to have four under two now," Katie joked. "We didn't expect them all at once." 

The family have now set up a Gofundme page to try and help with the costs of going from one child to four!