Triplets Born at 00:00 on New Year's Day in Gwangju

Cesarean Section at Jeonnam National University Hospital... Two Sons and One Daughter
Mother "Happy and Overwhelmed to Have a Baby Born on New Year's Day"

The triplets Kim Seo-jun (male), Seo-ah (female), and Seo-jin (male), born at 0:00 on January 1, 2023, at Gwangju Jeonnam National University Hospital. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] On the first day of the new year 2023, the Year of the Black Rabbit, at 0:00, triplets were born, drawing attention.

According to Yonhap News on the 1st, the mother, Kim Mijin (36, Gokseong-gun, Jeonnam), gave birth to triplets Kim Seojun (male), Seo Ah (female), and Seo Jin (male) at 0:00 in the operating room of the main hospital of Jeonnam National University Hospital. The babies were born weighing 1.88kg, 1.9kg, and 1.89kg respectively and were immediately moved to incubators in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Kim, who became pregnant with triplets through in vitro fertilization in May last year, was classified as a high-risk mother. Accordingly, Kim received treatment for preterm labor and contractions in the hospital for a total of 49 days until delivery, and on the target gestational age of 34 weeks and 1 day, she delivered the triplets by cesarean section.

Kim told Yonhap News, "All three are healthy, and being born on the first day of the new year makes me very happy and my heart is full," adding, "Since it was a difficult pregnancy and delivery, I hope they grow up healthy."

Kim Yoonha, director of the High-Risk Maternal and Neonatal Integrated Care Center at Jeonnam National University Hospital, who performed the cesarean section, said, "Although the triplets were born a little early, with the help of specialists in obstetrics, pediatrics, anesthesiology, and other fields, there are no health issues at all," and added, "I hope the children grow up happy and healthy."

According to the '2020 Birth Statistics (Final)' announced by Statistics Korea in 2021, the proportion of multiple births among total births was 4.9% (13,300), of which twins accounted for 12,900 and triplets or more for 300.

Meanwhile, the first babies born this year were three children born simultaneously at Ilsan Cha Hospital in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi Province. The healthy girl Bokdong-i (nickname), weighing 3.8kg, born naturally to mother Son Eunseo (30) and father Kim Jeongseop (39), and the twins Jjangsuni (female, 3.09kg) and Jjangjangi (male, 3.32kg), born by cesarean section to mother Kim Hyunjung (40) and father Jang Donggyu (42), were welcomed into the world.