Butler mom gives birth to triplets
When Dr. Ronald Cypher looked at patient Sarah Morrow’s chart, he did more than a double take.
He did a triple take.
Only one in 10,000 pregnancies leads to triplets — and this was one of those cases. Cypher, a Butler-based obstetrics and gynecology doctor, had not witnessed an event such as this in his medical career, which began more than 30 years ago.
“It’s very rare,” said Cypher. “And it’s a surprise on the ultrasound. Obviously you’ll see one baby and then you’ll see a second baby and then, all of a sudden, there’s three ... And it’s a surprise for the mother, the dad and the obstetrician.”
Morrow brought fraternal triplets Beau, Rhett and Luke into the world just after 6:20 p.m. July 29 at Allegheny Health Network Penn Hospital. She spent most of her pregnancy in Butler, with husband Randy Morrow lending support.
But the premature birth of her children called for an expanded medical team available only in Pittsburgh.
"We needed that NICU,“ said Cypher, referring to the neonatal intensive care unit that looks after sick or premature babies just after they are born.
“By my count, there was 21 staff taking care of those three babies shortly after delivery,” he said. “So they had a lot of wonderful personal attention from the hospital staff at West Penn. They did a phenomenal job.”
Cypher said it’s common for triplets to arrive prematurely, and in this case, they did so 10 weeks ahead of schedule. But everyone emerged healthy, too, he said.
Triplets usually mean less space for everyone inside the uterus or womb, Cypher said. Morrow’s first child weighed nine pounds, but these three triplets totaled nine pounds altogether, he said.
Cypher said the conditions of this birth called for an emergency cesarean section, or C-section, a procedure in which care providers deliver babies through an incision in the mother’s abdomen. Doctors such as Cypher often perform these because traditional delivery could put the mother or babies at risk.
Baby Rhett made it out of the womb last, despite wanting to be first, Morrow said.
Rhett at first could stick out only one of his arms. After care providers placed this arm back within the womb and helped to deliver the other two babies, they then could bring Rhett out the rest of the way, she said.
She learned about the unique nature of her pregnancy during an ultrasound appointment between eight and 10 weeks into her pregnancy.
“It was quite a shock, honestly, finding out that it was triplets,” she said.
She laughed.
“It was definitely a big change for everybody,” she said. “There are no multiples or anything in our family, so that kind of made it even more stressful, but we do have a 4-year-old daughter as well. So it’s kind of an adjustment going from one to four real fast.”
“It was definitely a blessing,” she said. “Everything went fairly smooth, and like I said, finding out early was definitely helpful as far as preparing went.”
On Halloween, the Morrows dressed up each triplet as ketchup, mustard and relish. Now the three will soon celebrate their first Thanksgiving.
Morrow said it really does take a village, with everyone in her community helping care for the new children, to help navigate the months and years ahead.
It helped a lot that Cypher, who had helped with the birth of her now-4-year-old daughter, caught everything in time and guided the family through each stage of her pregnancy.
“A lot of the times, people struggle when they find out that they’re having multiples,” Morrow said. “It’s like, ‘Oh my gosh! What am I going to do?’ ... But just taking it day by day has helped a lot ... getting the help you need. Having a great support system, which we do, thankfully ... It all works out.”
