Couple with seven kids decide to try for one more - and they welcome quintuplets

14 February 2023 , 22:44

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Dominika and Vince Clarke welcomed quintuplets in Krakow, Poland (Image: Lukasz Gagulski/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

A British dad and his Polish wife already had seven kids but decided to try for just one more – now they have welcomed quintuplets.

Expat Vince Clarke and wife Dominika described the five new babies who arrived on Sunday as “a miracle”.

They already had two sets of twins, Antoinette and Ziggy, seven, and Alexander and Charlotte, four, plus Philip 12, Elliot, 10, and 10-month-old Grace.

Dominika gave birth to three girls and two boys, named Arianna Daisy, Charles Patrick, Elizabeth May, Evangeline Rose and Henry James, at University Hospital in Krakow, Poland.

Software engineer Vince, 55, originally from Kidderminster, Worcs, said he was in shock when Dominka told him she was pregnant with five children.

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A newborn baby of a set of quintuplets (Lukasz Gagulski/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

He said: “She phoned from hospital and said ‘I think you’d better sit down’. Then she said ‘I’ve got a bit of a surprise’.”

He added: “We were on a very good diet of juices and low fat food. We are pretty sure that diet played a part.”

Dominka, 37, called her pregnancy a “miracle”, with the odds of conceiving quintuplets one in 52 million. “As a mathematician, I like these kinds of statistics,” said the mum, whose grandfather had eight siblings. “We had a greater chance of winning the lottery than having this crowd.”

The other seven kids of the couple

She said they had been “planning to have an eighth child but there turned out to be more”.

The babies were delivered by caesarean section at 29 weeks and each weighed between 1lb 9oz to 3lb 1oz.

They still require respiratory support but are stable. Ryszard Lauterbach, head of the neonatal department, said: “We hope we can arrive at the joyful moment of discharging them.”

The babies in incubators at the Obstetrics Department of the University Hospital in Krakow (Lukasz Gagulski/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Former English and maths teacher Dominika said they left for Puchacze, Poland, six years ago “for a different life” after 13 years together in England.

Vince said of the new arrivals: “We’ll cope. My wife and I didn’t plan for five but we are very happy and the other children are excited too. We have a huge house.”

Lucy Thornton