Zimbabwe-born lesbian and her wife give birth to triplets in Canada

Canada: Lesbian couple, Zimbabwe-born Tarie and her partner Ebonee Hicks from the US both living in Newfoundland and Labrador Canada on Friday last week welcomed a set of triplets into the world which made them the first black lesbian couple to have triplets in possibly all of Canada.

The babies were born in St. John’s at 30 weeks and six days, 6 weeks early for triplets, who generally have a 36-week gestation period.

Tarie who is a student at the Centre for Nursing Studies, said they’re all doing well in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit).

“They’re doing pretty good, but the smallest of the bunch, who was born 2.7 pounds, is actually the one that’s doing the best. She’s off her CPAP (breathing device), so she’s breathing on her own and is getting her nutrition,” she said.

“The other two have been weaned off oxygen, so they’re just on CPAPs to help them a little bit, but other than that, there’s no other concerns that the doctors can see.”

The babies, Amina Nyasha arrived first at 2:06 a.m., weighing 2.7 pounds, Lila Maita arrived three minutes later, weighing 2.9 pounds, followed by Nolan Rufaro, weighing 3.5 pounds, a minute later.

The mothers, who have two older sons aged 13 and 9, did some research before naming the babies, rather than naming them after people.

“We wanted names that mean something. So we just researched in that way. ... Amina means ‘faith,’ Lila means ‘beauty’ and Nolan means ‘champion,’” Tarie said.

“The other middle names are Shona, because I’m from Zimbabwe and my wife is from the States, so we decided to make the middle names from my country. So Amina, her middle name, Nyasha, is ‘grace.’

"We wanted something that says grace, but we didn’t want plain old Grace (laughs). For Lila, Maita means ‘grateful’ or ‘thankful,’ and then for Nolan, his middle name, Rufaro, is ‘happiness.’”

According to Tarie who said the pregnancy was great, she remembers finding out on February 18 that she and her wife would be having triplets. 

She said two eggs were fertilized, and one splitted, meaning they have one set of identical twins and one singleton, a rare pregnancy case.

“I was ecstatic,” she said, laughing, “but Ebonee was freaked out, to say the least. She was very, very, very upset.”

Ebonee was active and healthy until she was put on bed rest at 24 weeks, and went on medical leave at 26 weeks.

“I had stop working at the same time, because my private client I was taking (care of) passed away. But Ebonee being on medical leave, complete bed rest, made it impossible anyway for me to work, as we have two sons that needed a parent's care,” Tarie said.

On Sunday, Tarie said Ebonee, who had a cesarean-section birth, was recovering well.

“She just got discharged today, so we’re just hanging out at the NICU, and because both of us are breastfeeding, that’s it. We’re just hanging out and pumping milk. That’s the joys of our days these days,” she said, laughing.

“We knew it was going to be a lot from the word ‘go,’ so our doctors that we’ve been working with, they had me on two different medications — one was to kind of fool my body into thinking that I’m pregnant, and then the other one was for the hormones to initiate lactation.”

The couple expects the triplets to remain in NICU for another month or more before joining them at home.

They couple have in the meantime, have urged the public to follow them on their Facebook page, The Hicks HIVE, where they post updates on the family and also welcome support from the community.