TRIGGER WARNING: This post contains information about stillbirth and infant loss, which may be triggering to some.
A Massachusetts mother who gave birth to quadruplets in July is grieving the death of one of her infant daughters months later. The babies were not just quads but also two sets of identical twins, two boys and two girls. Now 36-year-old mom Ashley Ness is remembering the daughter who never came home from the hospital.
The quads, twin girls named Chesley and Chatham and twin boys Chance and Cheston, were born in July 2022, according to People, but Chesley remained in the hospital after her siblings were discharged in October. Sadly, she died in February, and now her mom is looking to her family to bring her strength through her unimaginable grief.
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The rare and high-risk pregnancy was a surprise.
People reported in June 2022 that Ness was unexpectedly expecting quads. She went to see her doctor to renew her birth control and was shocked to find out she was pregnant.
Dr. Ahmet Baschat, director of the Center for Fetal Therapy and a professor in the Johns Hopkins Medicine Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, told People in July that although he was not a part of Ness' care team, he understood how rare the pregnancy was.
"It's a high-risk pregnancy," Baschat said. "That variety I haven't seen. We see a lot of rare stuff, but this is the first time I'm hearing this in my entire career."
The Taunton Gazette reported that quadruplets occur in roughly 1 in 700,000 births. Ness' quads are astronomically rare, occurring in just 1 in 70 million births.
The infants came early.
Ness' babies arrived via C-section on July 28 at just 28 weeks of gestation. They were born at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. As the smallest of the infants weighing 1 lb. 7 oz., Chesley fought setbacks the other babies did not have, including lungs that never fully developed.
According to an Instagram post from Ness on February 28, Chesley had severe chronic lung disease and on December 28 she had received a tracheostomy. The mom wrote that she believed this would fix all that ailed her sweet baby.
"Despite the MGH staff telling me it will get worse before it gets better, I believed she was going to prove us all wrong. She did well for a little bit until she didn't," she wrote in the post. "She fought through infection after infection. She was truly getting tired and I saw it in her last few days. She put up the biggest fight in the world to be here with all of us. On February 22, 2023 she just couldn't do it anymore."
Ness' older daughter, Chanel, is a source of great strength for her.
Sometimes children are wise beyond their years and unknowingly say and do the right things at the right time, just when an adult needs them.
Chanel, 9, is a "mother hen" to the other children, Ness told People. She wrote a note to her mother about Chesley that read in part, "She would stay strong because she had the best mom on earth. . . . She had the best life she could ever ask for."
Chesley's legacy will live on.
Though she is gone in body, Ness plans to keep Chesley's spirit alive and teach her siblings about their beloved sister. In addition to the babies, Ness and her partner, Val Bettencourt, 48, share their home with Chanel and sons Isaiah, 11, and Zayden, 8.
"Honestly, I speak about Chesley every day," she told People. "All three of the babies, they'll look up at the ceiling, always in my bedroom, and they're always talking, talking, talking."
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Chesley's family and friends hope to raise money to support her parents.
A GoFundMe page was established to help the family with medical bills and final expenses for Chesley. It has raised more than $33,000 thus far, with donors leaving words of encouragement for the family.
"As a mother of identical girl twins, my heart goes out to you. I am so sorry for your loss," someone wrote. "God bless all of you. Hang tight, believe, and trust in the almighty—He will provide."
"Thinking of you constantly. My heart goes out to you ♥️" another comment reads.
