ABU DHABI // Every mother remembers the day they are told they are pregnant for the first time but few have a story as special as Suman Manning.
Two weeks after receiving infertility treatment, the Indian had a check-up with her Sharjah-based doctor and was told she was expecting not one baby - but three.
“They pointed to the screen at a dot and said there is a heartbeat,” recalls the Dubai resident. “And I thought ‘amazing’. Then he said ‘there is a second heartbeat’ and my eyes widened and my husband held my hand really tight.
“Then the doctor said ‘well, when it rains, it pours’. There is a third heartbeat’.”
Her husband almost fainted when he heard the news.
“His legs went really wobbly and the nurse grabbed a chair,” said Ms Manning. “It was quite surreal.”
The mother said her uncle’s brothers were twins and, from an early age, a fascination with twins meant it was something she wanted herself. Three, however, was something she had not prepared for.
Turning to the internet for information, she found many horror stories about triplets and a lack of positive information.
But then she came across the TwinsPlus Arabia support group - then run by an Australian who also had triplets.
The positivity and support she found from her, and other members of the group, gave her the support she needed during her pregnancy.
In April 2000, at just 30 weeks, the couple welcomed triplets Zandar, Zara and Zoe into the world.
Three weeks after being born in Dubai, Ms Manning, 41, was allowed to be able to take home her two little girls Zara and Zoe, who weighed just 1.7kg each at the time.
Two weeks later, Zandar, who had suffered from a bacterial infection, was allowed to join his sisters.
From that point, it was a matter of “routine, routine, routine,” said Ms Manning, an events organiser.
While many of her friends were also pregnant and gave birth around the same time, expecting and caring for triplets is “a whole other ball-game”, she said.
Bathing, feeding and clothing each child was like as “assembly line’, she said. “It is very, very military.”
Ms Manning took over TwinsPlus Arabia in 2011 when the previous group leader left for the UK.
“I knew I wanted to give something back,” said the expatriate, who has lived in Dubai for 19 years. “I knew how hard it was.”
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