Three times the joy as baby boy triplets born without a hitch
“I hope we can be an inspiration to others trying to conceive. It took us three years and we ended up with a baby for every year we tried!” says the mam of triplet boys who have bounced into the world without a hitch.
Meet Otto, Ozzy and Castiel, the triplets who mam and dad, Katie Todd and John Bell, hope will prove a little inspiration to others.
Conceiving triplets naturally is rare, occurring in around one in every 10,000 pregnancies, but after three years of trying Katie and John, from Cleadon, discovered just that.
It’s also a high-risk pregnancy, but Katie says she can’t thank Sunderland Royal Hospital enough for the care she received throughout her pregnancy and during her C-section, with the boys all born healthy at 33 weeks on March 4.
“We are just over the moon with them,” said Katie. “I keep looking at them, thinking ‘I can’t believe I carried all of you’. It’s overwhelming, but such a blessing to have three babies.
“Everyone loves them and not one person hasn’t cried when they’ve met them.”
The couple already have daughter Lottie-May, five, and decided three years ago they wanted to expand their family.
“We’d actually been trying for three years without any luck,” said Katie, 29. “It had got to the point where I was reaching 30 and decided we’d give up then and just not have any more.
“But we ended up with one for every year we’d been trying.”
Katie had done a home pregnancy test to discover she was pregnant and the couple booked an early scan at five weeks.
“The first scan said we had twins and I thought ‘mint’, we were over the moon,” said the mum-of-four. “My nana always joked I would have twins because I don’t do things by halves.
“Then we had another scan at eight weeks after I had bad morning sickness - and they said ‘oh, we missed one!’”
With triplets on the way, Katie’s pregnancy was consultant-led, with scans every two weeks.
“Sunderland Royal were amazing,” she said. “From the second we walked in, the whole experience was lovely.”
The triplets’ due date was actually today, April 16, but after Katie’s waters broke in early March, she was admitted for a C-section, with twins Otto and Ozzy born weighing 5lb4oz and 4lb 3oz, respectively, and Castiel (Cass for short), born weighing 4lb9oz.
“With triplets, they try to get you as close to 35 weeks as possible as after that there’s more risk of complications,” said the mum, who worked for John’s business, North East Insulation Services, before the boys were born.
“I was absolutely petrified as I’d never had surgery before. Lottie was born naturally and I was bit devastated I couldn’t do that with the boys as I loved it, but I knew it had to be done this way.
“I was chatting to the anaesthetist one minute and the next I heard a baby cry, with the boys all born two minutes apart. It was just an amazing experience and my emotions were all over the place.
“I didn’t expect to be able to hold them all straight away, but all were born healthy and required no medical intervention from the NICU team, which was unexpected and incredibly reassuring.”
Katie says she hopes the couple’s journey can give hope to those who may be struggling with fertility or considering lifestyle changes.
Prior to conceiving, Katie used Mounjaro to help her lose 4.5stones, which she believes helped her to conceive.
“Mounjaro gets such a negative press, but it can be of help to people,” she said. “Losing weight made such a difference for me. It’s hard being pregnant anyway, but especially with triplets.
“It’s hard both mentally and physically, but I want to show people it’s not all horror stories and to give them hope.”
The boys were three of 283 babies born at Sunderland Royal in March 2026 . In total, there were 148 boys born at the unit, 135 girls, four sets of twins - and only one set of triplets.
Melissa Letouze is Acting Head of Midwifery at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust.
She said: "We offer our congratulations to Katie and John and their family on the arrival of the boys.
"Having a baby is an exciting and memorable time for parents and welcoming twins or triplets makes the journey even more extraordinary.
"Our midwives out in the community and in our hospitals, alongside our consultants, doctors, anaesthetists, neonatal staff and maternity support workers are there to support families every step of the way. It really is a team effort.
"Everyone involved in the arrival of Otto, Ozzy and Cass will be delighted to hear that they are doing so well."