Woman Acting as Surrogate for Sister Gives Birth to Triplets

A 32-year-old woman who agreed to bear a baby for her infertile sister has given birth to triplets, the first ever born to a surrogate mother.

The babies, all boys, were born about noon Sunday by Caesarean section at Detroit’s Sinai Hospital, said Martin Wilks, who was with his wife, Jeanette, as she delivered. One baby weighed 2 pounds, 14 ounces and the other two were just over 3 pounds, he said.

The triplets, eight weeks premature, are the first on record by a surrogate mother, said Dr. Ronald Zack, who performed the Caesarean section.

Zack said no fertility drugs were used, making the odds one in 10,000 against a multiple birth. There is no history of multiple births in the family.

Wilks, of St. Clair Shores, said his wife agreed to be artificially inseminated with her brother-in-law’s sperm because her 34-year-old sister was unable to conceive.

“She loves her (sister) so much she just wanted her to have children,” Wilks, 34, said today.

He wouldn’t reveal the name of Mrs. Wilks’ sister, who also lives in the Detroit area.

“She was always the giver in the family,” Jeanette Wilks said of her sister. “It was harder for her because she had to sit there and watch me.”

Martin Wilks said the babies were conceived after three previous unsuccessful attempts to artificially inseminate his wife.