Publisher Health

Three sisters from Bristol have made it into the Guinness World Records book on two counts, for being the lightest and most premature triplets to survive.

Rubi-Rose, Payton-Jane and Porscha-Mae Hopkins weighed a total of 2lb and 13oz (1,284g) when they were born at 22 weeks on Valentine’s Day in 2021.

They spent 216 days in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Southmead Hospital, Bristol.

Michaela White and Jason Hopkins said their girls had “come on leaps” since.

“Since they’ve come out of hospital. They’ve just sprung and their health is improving”, Ms White, 32, said.

They were born by Caesarean section just three weeks after Ms White found out she was pregnant with triplets.

“It was mad,” and “the quickest pregnancy,” either parent had ever known, Mr Hopkins said.

Ms White said the birth was traumatic and she did not see her girls when they were first born.

They were quickly placed in incubators and swaddled in polythene wrapping to act like a womb and regulate their body temperature.

The first 72 hours of the babies’ lives were the most critical and they each had to breathe independently for 10 seconds before doctors could intervene to provide them with oxygen.

“The NICU journey on its own, any parent who has been through it, whether it’s been two days or, as we were 216 days, it’s one of the hardest journeys you’ll go through,” Mr Hopkins said.

All three of the girls were born with cerebral palsy and have lifelong conditions that affect their movement and co-ordination.

Born first at 10:21GMT at 467g (1lb), Rubi-Rose has a mild form of the condition, while her two sisters Payton-Jane and Porscha-Mae, who were born nearly two hours later weighing 402g (0.89lb) and 415g (0.91lbs), have mobility issues and were tube-fed.

Mr Hopkins, 36, said it was a consultant who suggested the siblings might be the earliest surviving triplets in the UK.

“So we got in touch with Guinness World Record,” he said.

When they found out Ms White was pregnant at 19 weeks, they were facing eviction from their temporary accommodation and had lost their job due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I think with the pressure, and stress of eviction and things, could have brought my waters on,” Ms White said.

“No one knows why I went into labour that early.

“It was a tough year for us losing our home and going into temporary accommodation.”

Sharing their journey with more than 10,000 followers on TikTok, Ms White and Mr Hopkins said they wanted to raise awareness of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and postnatal depression among fathers, and also to help support other parents of premature babies.

Mr Hopkins, who has struggled with PTSD and post-natal depression said the experience of seeing his daughters in NICU was “very hard” but thanked the medical staff for all they did and continued to do for their two-year-olds.

The couple also have two older children and acknowledged it was difficult to find time to themselves because life was “manic”, but said they had learned to “lean on each other” to get by.

“Michaela is a wonder mum and she is absolutely amazing – I love her to bits.

“Words can’t say how proud I am of that woman, she is amazing,” Mr Hopkins said.

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