'There Seems To Be Five Of Them!'

Amy Kempel, 37, became a mum of seven overnight!

- Jess Grieveson-Smith

I squeezed my husband Chad’s hand excitedly, as I began settling myself onto the bed. We were about to see our baby for the first time! ‘What do you think Amy?

A boy or girl?’ Chad smiled. Seven weeks in, he was as nervous as me.

But the sonographer quickly fell silent and as he looked up, his face was one of baffled bemusement. My heart was pounding. I’d previously suffered four miscarriages, two of which were twins who were born prematurely at 22 weeks. We already had Savannah, three, and Avery, two, and this little one was going to be our rainbow baby, completing our family.

By now, we’d undergone around 20 rounds of IUI, a fertility treatment that involves placing sperm inside the womb, to increase the number that reach the fallopian tubes, increasing the chance of fertilisation.

‘Don’t panic!’ the doctor smiled. ‘Your baby is fine. It’s just there seems to be... Well, five of them! It looks like you’re having quintuplets.’ Chad and I looked at each other gobsmacked.

FIVE babies! How on earth were we going to manage five babies?

We knew the IUI treatment meant a higher chance of multiples but we never expected quintuplets.

At our next appointment, there was sombre news.

‘Just because it’s five embryos doesn’t mean it’ll be five babies,’ the doctor said. ‘Their best chance for survival is if you were to terminate one or two.’

But this just wasn’t an option for us.