Woman gives birth to two sets of identical twins

A woman who thought her childbearing days are over has delivered not one, but two, sets of identical twins — at the same time.

Ashley Ness had already suffered four miscarriages when she went to her doctor for a routine checkup and to get birth control earlier this year. The last thing she expected was to learn she was pregnant.

“That was a day of emotion right there,” Ness told WJAR-TV.

“That was a day of emotion right there,” Ness told WJAR-TV.

Ness, 35, already has a daughter of her own from a previous relationship. They live with her boyfriend, Val, a light mechanic who is 47, and two of his three children.

Two weeks after that, she went in for an ultrasound — and the tech did a double-take before leaving the room briefly. It would turn out that the tech was googling, because she could not believe what she saw. When she came back she scrutinized the screen again.

“It’s just me and the tech in there, she’s sitting there, she’s scanning me, and then she writes ‘A B,’ so I look at her and I am like, ‘Wait, hold on, am I having twins?’ ” Ness told Boston.com. “She’s like, ‘Um, honey, you’re having four babies.’ I thought I was going to faint.”

Though not due till Oct. 18, Ness had been planning to have them between Aug. 9 and 23 for health and safety reasons. But they were anxious to see the world, because they arrived by Cesarean at 3:48 a.m. Thursday, after just 28 weeks and two days, or 12 weeks earlier than full term, People noted.

Ness had been in the hospital since July 6 to ensure that all went well. The babies will be in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children for the next eight or so weeks, a spokesperson told People.

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“Everyone is doing well so far and recovering, because it was a busy night,” the spokesperson said.

The chance of a pregnancy such as Ness’ is “like 1 in 10 million,” maternal-fetal medicine specialist Dr. Ahmet Baschat, who was not involved in Ness’s care, told People before the delivery. Ness said she was told it was a one in 70 million chance. Either way, the odds against it happening were enormous — though still more likely than a Mega Millions win.

“If she were playing the lottery, if she’s this lucky, she would be very rich,” said Baschat, director of the Center for Fetal Therapy and a professor in the Johns Hopkins Medicine Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics. “That variety I haven’t seen. We see a lot of rare stuff, but this is the first time I’m hearing this in my entire career.”

Though Ness and her boyfriend may be financially strapped — returning to her job as a part-time hair stylist is out of the question — the new mom feels exceedingly wealthy.

“I just kind of accepted that I was blessed with one child, and I took on his boys as my own,” Ness told People of the family she and her boyfriend had built. “So, I’m like, ‘My life is complete,’ never expecting to find out that I’m having another baby.”

Having lost four pregnancies — two before her now 8-year-old daughter, and two since — she couldn’t help but notice the symmetry.

“They all came back to me,” Ness told WJAR.