Quadruplets Make a Mother’s Day to Remember

ORANGE —  After eight years of trying unsuccessfully to have a child, Susan and Robert Hasson reaped a Mother’s Day bonanza Sunday morning--four healthy baby girls.

And although Susan--who wore four “It’s a Girl!” buttons pinned to the white hospital sheet over her pink gown--was a bit weary from the emergency caesarean section, the Westminster couple was grateful and excited Sunday afternoon.

“I went for the gusto, and they gave me the gusto,” said Susan Hasson, 37, referring to the in-vitro fertilization procedure that resulted in the births of Sarah, Rachel, Amy and Catherine. “I have waited so long to be a mother.”

The quadruplets, who are not identical, were 7 1/2 weeks premature, and they average between two and three pounds each, according to Dr. Sudeep Singh, the couple’s neonatologist at St. Joseph Hospital.

The Hassons’ two earlier fertility procedures failed.

The 10:42 a.m. delivery, which required the emergency caesarean after Susan Hasson’s water broke at 6:15 a.m., took just minutes, physicians said. Sarah was delivered first, Rachel a minute later, and a minute after that, Amy and Catherine were delivered together.

Singh said he was impressed with the babies’ health. The infants were not receiving any special care and were expected to go home in two to four weeks.

“They are doing remarkably well,” said Singh, adding that the chances of a successful quadruple gestation is about 1%. He also said that “when there are quadruplets, there is a potential for more complications.”

The Hasson children are the second set of quadruplets born at the hospital since 1993.

Despite their euphoria, the Hassons acknowledged that bringing up four babies will not be an easy or inexpensive task.

“I’m real excited, not nervous. I can’t wait to change [their diapers],” said Robert Hasson, 36, an accountant.

Susan Hasson, who said she does not plan to return to work for a few years--she was an insurance agent--is counting on help from her mother, sister and sister-in-law. She expects to leave the hospital Tuesday.

The couple did not know all the children would be girls. “I’m glad they are not identical. That way they have their own little identities,” Susan Hasson said.

Despite being bedridden for the past 3 1/2 months, she said she had no regrets about her arduous pregnancy.

“It’s definitely worth it,” said the new mother, who found out she was having quadruplets eight weeks into the pregnancy. “I’d do it all over again.”