Queensland family welcomes natural identical quadruplets in Australia

A Brisbane family has welcomed four identical baby girls in what medical experts believe may be the first naturally conceived pregnancy of its kind in Australia. The quadruplets, Emily, Harriet, Alexa, and Catherine, were delivered by elective caesarean section at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital on July 14, 2026, at 28 weeks and four days gestation.

The girls, born to mother Jenitar Naamoana, 34, and her husband Jortham, are monozygotic, meaning they developed from a single fertilized egg that split four times. They shared one placenta but developed in four separate amniotic sacs. Maternal-fetal medicine specialist Dr. Alexa Bendall, who cared for Naamoana throughout the pregnancy, described the event as extraordinarily rare, estimating spontaneously conceived identical quadruplets occur in approximately one in 15 million pregnancies. She stated that to her knowledge, such a case has never before occurred in Australia, with only a couple of documented cases elsewhere in the world.

The pregnancy was considered extremely high-risk due to the shared placenta, which carries elevated risks of complications, growth restriction, and mortality for both the babies and the mother....