The babies may be a world first for same sex couples: The triplets include an identical set of twins, Zoe and Kate.
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“When you’re gay, there’s always the thought that it just may not be possible to be a parent no matter how much you would love to be”, Christo told Sky News.
“We were strongly advised by the social worker that our chances of succeeding in getting an adoption was very small, considering there was a large demand for people wanting children”, he added.
‘And then we just never thought we’d ever find a person who would want to be surrogate to a gay couple’.
The men met their surrogate at a gathering of neighbors of Paralympian Oscar Pistorius after his murder trial, in which he was found guilty of killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.
Theo and Christo Menelaou, a couple from Pretoria, had the three children via a surrogate.
The triplets were born prematurely and were monitored at Johannesburg’s Sunninghill Hospital until the hospital thought they were well enough to go home.
According to The New York Daily News, while the birth of the triplets to a same-sex couple is a recorded first in South Africa, a similar birth occurred in America on June 28.
They had to follow South Africa’s strict law on surrogacy which meant the couple, the surrogate and her husband signed affidavits that they are all willing participants to the arrangement and no money was exchanged, excluding expenses incurred because of the pregnancy.
Dr. Heidra Dahms, the obstetrician who delivered the Menelaou triplets, said this occurrence was extremely rare, according to Christo.
In theory the egg cell could come from one parent, and the sperm cell from the other. “I have never heard of this before”.
In fact, there’s very little data for same-sex surrogate babies – and the likelihood of triplets makes the event even rarer.
The Menelaous have daytime and nighttime nurses to help care for their triplets.
‘We have to gently massage their backs or tickle their toes just to remind them to take a breath, ‘ Theo says.
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“We feel so blessed”.
