New Orleans doctors deliver triplet boys, quadruplet girls within 24 hours

NEW ORLEANS -- What do you have with three of a kind and four of a kind? A full hospital.

Doctors at Ochsner Medical Center delivered triplet boys and quadruplet girls within 24 hours.

Pamela Kocke's boys made their appearance early Tuesday, while Alisha Murphy's girls began showing up about 12 hours later, according to a hospital news release. All were doing well Wednesday.

"The trips were natural," hospital spokeswoman Katherine Voss said. The odds of naturally born triplets are about one in 8,000.

Linus, Oliver and Miles Kocke were delivered at 33 weeks and two days, the average gestation time for triplets. Babies born after 37 weeks' gestation are considered full-term.

The boys weigh from 4 pounds, 2 1/2 ounces to 4 pounds, 10 ounces. Doctors won't know whether any of them are identical until they get lab results from the babies' placentas, Voss said.

She said Murphy's girls, Molly, Elizabeth, Margaret and Carolyn, were conceived by in-vitro fertilization.

An ultrasound early during the pregnancy found that two of the girls are identical twins, indicating one of three fertilized eggs split after it was implanted, said Murphy's obstetrician, Dr. Sherri Longo. She didn't know which two are identical.

The girls were delivered at 32 weeks, weighing from 3 pounds, 6 ounces to 4 pounds, 3 ounces. The average gestation for quadruplets is 29 1/2 weeks.

All the infants will stay in the neonatal intensive care unit for a few weeks -- standard for premature babies.