So, who's your daddy?
A gay Pretoria couple, Theo and Christo Menelaou, have become biological fathers of triplets thanks to the help of an egg donor and surrogate mom.It took five in vitro fertilisation attempts before two eggs - each fertilised by one of the fathers - implanted into surrogate Jacqui Burns could be brought to term.The Menelaous are believed to be the first same-sex couple in South Africa, and possibly the world, to have triplets - identical twin girls and a boy - using a surrogate.The couple always wanted to be parents but considered surrogacy only after a neighbour suggested it and introduced them to a friend willing to carry the children.Burns has three children of her own."I didn't do it for fame. I did it to complete a family," Burns said.It was something she decided to do a few years ago.Burns' husband fully supported her decision.Burns said she was always aware there could be multiple babies because the surrogacy contract stipulated that each man would fertilise an egg.But no one expected one of the eggs to split into two.Burns said a gynaecologist told her it was extremely rare for a surrogate to have identical twins and another baby.Doctors, concerned about twin-to-twin transfusion with one twin getting all the food and the other starving, suggested an abortion.But Burns and Theo flew down to Cape Town to see a specialist gynaecologist who set their minds at ease.At 31 weeks identical twin girls Katie and Zoe and baby Joshua were born.The Menelaous don't know who the biological father is of which of the babies. And they don't want to know."They are all our children," said Theo, a stay-at-home dad who spent the first month in hospital with the children providing skin-to-skin contact."One day Joshua looks like me. The next day the twins do," said Christo, a builder and property developer. "The girls have my long fingers."The couple has employed day and night nurses.Zoe has a heart condition and will require an operation in about four months' time. - Additional reporting ©The Telegraph..
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