An Alabama couple is making history for giving birth to an incredibly rare set of quadruplets.
Michael and Hannah Carmack were already the parents to one child and had decided to try for a second. But at the very first ultrasound, Hannah — a veterinary technician — immediately recognized that she was having multiples when she saw two sacs on the screen.
“She was like, ‘Twins?’ But the ultrasound tech didn’t respond. Then Hannah goes, ‘Is it three?’ Then the ultrasound tech put her hand on Hannah’s knee and said, ‘Sweetie, it’s four,’” Michael told TODAY. “I started laughing. Hannah started to cry.”
While Michael had always wanted a big family, Hannah was scared. They had an emergency meeting with their pastor, which helped. “What I think Hannah came to realize is, ‘This is not normal. We had been chosen for something by God,” Michael said.
The couple was now expecting two sets of identical twins, something extraordinarily rare to be conceived naturally.
“There were only 148 deliveries of quadruplets or higher order multiples in the US in 2021,” Dr. Meghana Limaye, MD, maternal-fetal medicine specialist in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at NYU Langone Health, who did not treat the Carmacks, told TODAY. “The rate of triplets or higher is only 80 in 100,000 births. Additionally, to have two sets of identical twins, meaning that both embryos split after fertilization, makes it even more rare.”
At 27 weeks, the twins — Evelyn and Adeline, and David and Daniel — were born. They are expected to remain in the hospital until June, which is their original due date. And though they need help eating, they’re otherwise doing well, and are able to breathe on their own. According to the couple’s GoFundMe page, they are working on transitioning from their 1200-square foot home to a larger, 3000-square foot home, more suitable for a family of seven. Hannah has already returned back to her job as a veterinary technician, but still makes the babies her priority every day.
“My wife is a rock star,” Michael said, adding, “Hannah persuades the nurses to let her hold more than one baby at a time because she knows how important it is for them to hear and feel her. She has a connection with these babies like no one else.”
