Three new otter pups at the Detroit Zoo are already a must-see.
For parents who are pregnant or trying to conceive, the story of Mary Studebaker and Shane Perkins offers a rare window into one of the most uncommon outcomes in human reproduction: identical triplets conceived without fertility treatment.
The Texarkana couple, who live in the ArkLaTex region, already had a 10-year-old daughter and were hoping to grow their family by one. Instead, they welcomed three identical boys.
“Let’s just try for one more,” Studebaker said in an interview with KTEN. “And then all of a sudden, triplets.”
How Rare Is a Spontaneous Identical Triplet Pregnancy?
Naturally conceived triplets occur in roughly 1 in 10,000 pregnancies, according to KTEN. Identical triplets conceived without IVF are far rarer — closer to 1 in 1,000,000.
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“This is a rare occurrence,” Dr. Christian Briery of Willis Knighton told KTEN. “It happens in around one in 8,000 to 10,000 pregnancies spontaneously.”
Multiple birth rates have also been declining nationally. A 2024 report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that triplet and higher-order multiple births peaked at 194 per 100,000 in 1998 and dropped to 74 per 100,000 by 2023.
The total number of triplet and higher-order births fell from 7,625 to 2,653 over that period.
Can Triplets Be Identical? Here’s the Biology
For readers wondering whether triplets can be identical, the answer is yes — but the path is different from fraternal multiples.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, fraternal triplets form when three separate eggs are released at ovulation and each is fertilized by a different sperm.
Identical triplets, by contrast, originate from a single fertilized egg. That egg either splits into three, or splits into two and then one of those embryos splits again.
Because identical triplets share the same genetic material, they are almost always the same sex. In this case, all three babies are boys.
Born at 31 Weeks: What NICU Care Looks Like
The babies — Thomas Ray, Shane Austin and Beaux Bentley — were delivered Thursday, April 23, at Willis-Knighton Health System in Shreveport, La. All three arrived within one minute of each other, beginning at 7:52 a.m., at 31 weeks gestation.
Each newborn weighs between 2 and 3 pounds. They are expected to stay in the NICU for several more weeks to grow and gain strength — a common timeline for babies born this early.
“I was scared to death,” Perkins told KTEN. “I was just holding her hand. Especially when you see, well, one baby comes out, and then another, and then another.”
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Briery emphasized the wonder of the moment. “Any time this happens, we should celebrate,” he told KTEN. “It’s just a really neat phenomenon.”
At home, the couple’s 10-year-old daughter has already found her own way to help.
“My 10-year-old actually made bracelets,” Studebaker told KTEN. “She has them color-coded — one’s green, one’s blue and one’s orange.”
