Mom Pregnant with Triplets Is Faced with the Choice of Sacrificing Daughter to Save Her Sons

A woman reached a potentially fatal crossroad when doctors asked her to make an impossible decision about her triplets. But not making one could mean losing them.

Chloe Dunstan once had to make a difficult choice that could have had a negative effect had she chosen wrongly. It all began when the woman, who is currently married to Rohan Dunstan, fell pregnant naturally with triplets — two boys and a girl.

Things were going well, and their first three children, Evan, Otto, and Felix, were excited to have more siblings to play with.

Rohan and his wife wanted just one more child, but fate increased the number to three more. This proposed no problem until halfway through the pregnancy when Chloe's doctor told her she would need to make a choice.

During her second trimester, a 3D scan had shown that the boys measured great for multiples, with one above the 80th percentile and the other just above the 50th. However, the little girl among them was struggling to survive.

Her boys could be carried to term and delivered healthily, but her daughter, who had been deprived of nutrients, would have to die. The alternative? They try to save all three by inducing a premature delivery at 24 weeks, which would put the lives of all three kids at risk.

It was a tough choice, but the mother ultimately decided to try to save all three kids, so she opted to have them all at 24 weeks. She told Daily Mail Australia:

"I feel guilty for having the boys delivered when they were growing so well in the womb, but Pearl would have died if we didn't deliver early, so I will never regret that."

She admitted that she considered letting her go to save her brothers, but she didn't regret not doing that, especially since all three kids were born on July 3, 2015, in what was called a miracle delivery.

The triplets, Henry, Rufus, and Pearl, spent about 11 weeks in hospital before the doting parents finally took them home. She said:

"I do remember briefly considering the alternative of letting her go so her brothers could continue to grow strong and healthy and have the best start in life, but now that she's here, my heart hurts at the thought of not having her in our lives."

Born before their time, Henry and Rufus weighed 1370 grams and 1200 grams, respectively, while Pearl weighed just 690 grams.

All three needed transfusions, but Pearl had the most issues: a "PDA" in her heart, a pulmonary hemorrhage, minor brain bleed, horrible infection, and she had to be put on a ventilator in the first few weeks.

It wasn't clear if she would make it, but the PDA closed later, and several other treatments helped stabilize her vitals so that she could also go home after 11 weeks.

The Dunstans had their hands full with caring for all six kids, and after the delivery of the triplets, Chloe had her tubes tied to prevent conception in the future, which is a possibility at her age.

Sometime after, she and her husband decided they wanted more babies, so she had the process reversed, and by May 2020, the family was expecting the addition of twins to their brood.

That brings their number up to eight; The Dunstans don't seem to mind, and who knows, there may be more kids in their future.