The world’s first known quintuplets were the Dionne sisters from Canada, born on May 28, 1934. The girls were named Emilie, Marie, Cecile, Annette, and Yvonne. Let’s talk about how they managed to survive and how the destinies of these remarkable girls unfolded.
In our time, the birth of triplets, quadruplets, and quintuplets no longer surprises anyone. With the development of reproductive technologies, a woman can be implanted with as many embryos as desired. According to statistics, for every 85 births, there is one set of twins. Quintuplets are born in one case out of 55 million pregnancies. They are born prematurely – around the 28th week – and not all of them survive without special care.
The Unique Dionne Family
If it weren’t for the birth of the quintuplets, no one would have known about the Dionne family from the province of Ontario. They were an ordinary farming family, like many others at the time.
The Dion couple: father Oliva-Edouard and mother Elzire – already had five children, two sons, and three daughters. They had no idea that their next pregnancy would be so unusual. The woman thought she was going to have twins, but no one expected the family to grow by five children at once.
By the way, after the birth of the quintuplets, the Dion couple had three more sons. So, they had a total of 13 children.
Birth of the Quintuplets
At that time, there was no technology to determine how many embryos were in the mother’s uterus. After all, the first ultrasound for pregnant women appeared only in 1958, and even then the procedure was not developed.
Therefore, neither the mother giving birth nor the doctor who delivered her expected such a surprise. Elzire Dion, the mother of the quintuplets, experienced a real shock when the babies began to appear one after another during childbirth. Two midwives assisted the doctor, and the girls were born without problems. But their total weight was only 6 kg. This means that on average, each newborn weighed 1.2 kg.
Immediately after giving birth, Mrs. Dion was shocked and lost consciousness. When she came to, she exclaimed, “What am I going to do with all these babies?”
The girls were premature, born two months before their due date. These babies required special conditions, otherwise, they would not have survived.
Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe took care of the newborns. The newborns were wrapped in warmed blankets and massaged with olive oil. Initially, they were fed with corn syrup, and then they were given a mixture of syrup and cow’s milk with drops of rum added for stimulation.
The result of such care and attention – all the girls survived. Over time, they turned into beautiful, healthy, and smiling young ladies! However, they were not destined to grow up in their parents’ home.
