Woman has third consecutive leap year baby

Three American siblings have equalled a world record set in the 1960s by each being born on three consecutive leap year days.

David and Louise Estes' daughter Jade was born on Wednesday morning in Provo, near Salt Lake City, Utah. Four years prior their son Remington was born on February 29th, 2008, and four years before that their son Xavier was born on February 29th, 2004.

The trio of 'leaplings' have matched a record set by a Norwegian family in the 1960s. The Henriksen family, which logged births on the date in 1960, 1964 and 1968, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, are the only other known case of triple Leap Day babies.

Leap days occur once every four years to recalibrate the calendar and account for the 365 days and six hours it takes Earth to revolve around the sun.

The Estes' daughter Jade was overdue when the doctors induced labour and the family hit the elusive date once again.

“I have never gone over so I wasn't sure if she was going to wait,” Mrs Estes told The Daily Herald of Provo. “As soon as we passed midnight I knew it really, really could happen.”

The Estes family also have two other children who were not born on the unusual date.

They mark the 'leap day' birthdays with a large celebration at the end of February or beginning of March. This year they celebrated with special birthday cakes for Remington and Xavier.

Although the first of the Estes' family to be born on February 29th was a coincidence, the family admit they became more intentional with subsequent 'leaplings'.

“I approached her in October of 2010 and said, 'If we are going to have another baby this would be really cool', David Estes said”.  I wanted to give her time to think about it.“

The 29th of February also saw a set of rare arrivals in Britain, as a woman in Bristol gave birth to quadruplets, who were all born on 'leap day', 11 weeks early the BBC reported.

Emma Robbins gave birth by Caesarean section to four boys Zachary, Rueben, Joshua and Samuel within six minutes of each other on Wednesday.

According to the BBC, the babies were born after 29 weeks and one day of pregnancy and were all conceived naturally. Two of them are identical twins.

The likelihood of quadruplets being born on that particular date is extremely slim – with the odds thought to be millions to one.