150 premature babies were treated at the QEII Hospital last year, including 15 sets of twins and the identical quadruplets girls from Hythe. Many of the children and their parents got together Sunday for the 4th annual NICU graduation tea, held ahead of World Prematurity Day on November 17th.
Quadruplets Abigail, Emily, Grace and McKayla are now six months and one week old, and are putting on weight at a positive rate. Parents Tim and Bethani Webb say they’re lucky their girls are happy and healthy, and encourage others with preemies not to give up hope.
“Everybody’s got a unique case and it can be an enjoyable thing and it can be a concerning thing all at the same time, but you’re in really good hands” says Tim.
“It’s really, really hard having preemies,” adds Bethani. “You are so concerned about their health and their well being and you just want them to be healthy and happy. [Premature babies] can be just as strong and just as healthy as other babies.”
The Webbs says they received fantastic care from nurses in Grande Prairie and at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton. Their identical baby girls were born seven weeks early. The odds of naturally conceiving quadruplets are one in 67 million.
One in 8 children in Alberta are born before 37 weeks, while the odds go down to one in 10 in Canada and one in 12 in the world.