New Mom Gives Birth To Identical Triplets
By Libby Smith
DENVER (CBS4) – A brand new mother has a lot to celebrate this Mother's Day. She gave birth to three beautiful bundles of joy, who are also a statistical rarity.
Alysha Hakala is celebrating her first mother's day, not once, not twice, but three times over.
"Now that they're here it was worth every scary moment, every iffy moment," Hakala said from the NICU at the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children.
Triplets are a high-risk pregnancy to begin with, but Hakala's three are identical. That only happens in about 1 in every 100,000 pregnancies.
"One embryo that split twice to give you three fetuses that all shared on placenta," said Dr. Shira Fishman, a perinatologist at Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center.
A team of doctors have been monitoring and caring for Hakala for most of her pregnancy. She needed emergency care at 24-weeks, but was able to carry the triplets to 35-weeks, which is very unusual and gave the baby's a better start on life.
"It was only smooth sailing because we were in the right place at the right time with the right group of people helping us," Hakala said of the care she got at PSL.
Mila Marie, Laine Ella, and Annabelle Grace were born Tuesday morning. Three little girls who already have their father wrapped around their little fingers.
"Having little girls is a treasure, especially as a new father," said Alix Hakala.
Alix said that finding out they were having triplets was a bit overwhelming, but he feels blessed.
"I'm extremely proud of my wife, making it to 35 weeks…because that was absolutely amazing. She's such a strong woman," Alix told CBS4.
Healthy, happy, and so adorable, three times the luck for this new family for Mother's Day.
"Should have played the lottery. We both should have played the lotter," Hakala said with a laugh.
Libby Smith is a Special Projects Producer at CBS4. If you have a story you'd like to tell CBS4 about, call 303-863-TIPS (8477) or visit the News Tips section.