Santa makes a special stop at St. Joseph's to celebrate the birth of quintuplets

St. Joseph's celebrated a miraculous milestone just in time for Christmas with the birth of the hospital's first set of quintuplets, welcomed by parents Margaret and Michael Baudinet, Dec. 4, 2016.

To honor the occasion, Santa held a press conference during a brief layover in Phoenix, taking time to greet each of the infants—Ava, Clara, Camille, Isabelle and Luke—and congratulate both the parents and the entire team at St. Joseph's Nursery Intensive Care Unit (NyICU).  

Santa also offered sleigh-services to transport the family safely to their home in Virginia, as soon as the babies were released from the hospital.

The couple decided to relocate temporarily to Phoenix several months ago to receive care at St. Joseph's Hospital—after evaluating doctors and hospitals nationwide for experience treating high-risk pregnancies and multiple births.  While complications can happen with any pregnancy, Margaret’s pregnancy would pose higher risks for prematurity, low birth weight, sight and hearing deficiencies, underdeveloped lungs and cerebral palsy, among other risks. Quintuplets are rare, occurring only once in several million pregnancies. 

The Baudinets were comforted to know their perinatologist, John Elliott, MD, has delivered more quintuplets than any other doctor in the world, and that St. Joseph's NyICU is

 renowned for saving the lives of more than 650 premature infants a year. 

“This is an incredible time for the Baudinet family and for the hospital,” said Patty White, president and CEO of St. Joseph’s. “They are now a part of the rich history here at St. Joseph’s.”

On average, quintuplets are born less than 27 weeks into pregnancy. The Baudinet babies were born at 32-weeks via cesarean section—

delivered by a 24-person team in just 17 minutes. Despite their early arrival and sharing the womb, the five babies had better than anticipated weights ranging from three to four pounds.  

“We will be glad to be home, but our experience at St. Joseph’s has been above and beyond our expectations,” says Margaret. “The team caring for me and our little babies is just another miracle on our list.”

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