The babies, three girls and one boy, were born on Oct. 26 by planned C-section at 31 weeks’ gestation.
On 19 October 2018, tests revealed that one of the quadruplets was suffering from a life-threatening blood supply problem, so Tracy was admitted to University College London and prepared for surgery.
35 doctors and nurses participated in the births. The first girl was born with a weight of about one and a half kilograms.
Then her sister was born, the first of identical twins and the smallest of the quadruplets, weighing just under 900 grams.
His twin sister was born third, weighing 1100 grams. Then finally their brother was born, the oldest of the four, weighing more than 1,600 grams.
All infants were immediately transferred to the intensive care unit. They could not eat on their own, but the three of them were already breathing on their own, and their condition did not inspire fear for the doctors.
Tracey became the oldest mother of four couples in Great Britain. The woman had three adult children from her first marriage and eight grandchildren, ranging in age from 7 months to 11 years,
but had always dreamed of having another child. When Tracy turned 50 in December 2017, she decided it was time to make her dream come true.
In April 2018, she and Stephen went to Cyprus and, using the services of a fertility clinic, spent the £7,000 she inherited from her mother on IVF.
Four embryos were implanted in Tracy’s uterus, but one failed to implant, but the other separated spontaneously, resulting in identical twin sisters.
Tracy refused to follow doctors’ advice to get rid of both fetuses to increase the other two’s chances of survival.
‘It was a very stressful period. I was afraid that I would not be able to carry the pregnancy even to 28 weeks.
But thanks to my inner strength, I managed to make it to 31 weeks. I was very determined to succeed and wouldn’t allow myself to think about anything else,’ says Tracy.