'Extremely, Extremely Rare' Triplets Arrive In South Bay

HARBOR CITY, CA — When Nylah Craft learned she was pregnant earlier this year, she initially thought she was having twins. She was off by one.

On Aug. 18, Craft and her husband, Marco Bernal, welcomed Elio, Elias and Enzo at Kaiser Permanente South Bay Medical Center, three healthy boys born after what doctors described as an exceptionally rare naturally conceived pregnancy.

The boys are what doctors call “mixed triplets”: two are identical twins while their brother is fraternal. All three are boys.

Dr. Rohit Passi, chief of neonatology at Kaiser Permanente South Bay, told Patch that spontaneous triplets occur in roughly one in 10,000 deliveries. The particular combination involving an identical pair and a fraternal sibling is rarer still, although Passi said reliable data do not exist to put precise odds on it.

“It is extremely, extremely rare,” Passi told Patch.

Kaiser said the boys were born full term without complications and weighed just over 19 pounds combined. All three went home about three days after their birth, Passi said.

Their arrival also happened to fall on Bernal’s birthday.

“How can you forget your kids’ birthdays if they’re on your birthday, you know?” Bernal told ABC7, which first reported on the family Sunday.

The triplets join older sister Naya and brother Maceo, giving the Willowbrook couple five children, all under age 5.

A Rare And Risky Pregnancy

The pregnancy required unusually intensive monitoring. Passi said Craft was followed by a maternal-fetal medicine specialist and underwent ultrasound examinations almost weekly.

One potential complication involving the identical twins was twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, which can occur in pregnancies in which twins share a placenta. The condition causes an unequal exchange of blood between the twins and can endanger both babies.

Kaiser held multiple meetings before the birth to prepare not only for the planned delivery but also for the possibility that Craft could go into labor earlier, Passi said.

About 15 doctors and nurses ultimately took part in the delivery, bringing together specialists including neonatologists, OB-GYNs, anesthesiologists, NICU nurses and respiratory therapists. Passi said each baby had a dedicated NICU nurse and respiratory therapist.

“To the best of my knowledge, in the past 10 years, there maybe has been just one more triplet delivery,” Passi told Patch, adding that he believed the previous pregnancy involved IVF rather than spontaneous conception.

Just How Rare Are Triplets?

Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 2,444 triplet births in 2024, along with another 144 quadruplet and higher-order births.

For Passi, the extensive preparation and medical complexity ultimately gave way to something much simpler when all three babies arrived healthy.

“What truly matters at the end of the day is seeing families like these thrive,” he said. “Stories like these are what inspire us and encourage us to do the hard shifts, to come back in and do those long shifts.”

Craft previously told ABC7 that multiples run in her family. Her mother is a twin, and there are also triplet boys in the family.

“I was like, oh my goodness, I’m having twins,” Craft recalled of learning about the pregnancy. “And she was like, no, there’s three. And I was like, oh my gosh, triplets.”

'Just So Inspirational'

Passi said the case also underscored the importance of coordinated maternal care, particularly because Black women continue to face substantially higher maternal mortality rates in the United States.

The maternal mortality rate among Black women was 44.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2024, more than three times the rate among White women, according to CDC data.

Passi said Craft shared with her care team that she suffered encephalitis at about 18 years old and that she and her family once feared she might not be able to have children.

He recalled seeing Craft walking toward the operating table as the team prepared for the delivery.

Patients such as Craft, he said, are “just so inspirational.”

Now, five children later, Elio, Elias and Enzo are home with their family.