The Things People Say

As a journalist it is standard practice not to comment on stories you have written, especially in response to others. Some days I really just want to break that rule. Here is an example. I wrote a story the other day about a family who has 3 babies all born on consecutive leap years the lead said, "The odds of having a baby born on Leap Day is one in 1,461, but the odds of having three babies born on consecutive Leap Days are less than 1 in a billion. David and Louise Estes of Payson beat those odds and became only the second family on record to have three babies born on Leap Day when Jade was welcomed into the world Wednesday morning at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center."

This is the comment I got in return:

Dear Paige Fieldsted:
I’m guessing you may be a Utah native and have thus been shielded from participation in sex education courses. For your future reference, you should know that pregnancies are not completely random events. Parents can decide when (within about a week or two) during any given year they want their baby to be born. Thus, if the parents have that goal, the odds of having a baby on Leap Day are not one in 1461 (three years of 365 days, and one year of 366 days = 1461 days) as you report, but are closer to one in about 7 to 14. Given this one-to-two-week uncertainty, the odds of having three consecutive Leap Day babies are not less than one in a billion, but more on the order of one in 7x7x7 = 343 to one in 14x14x14 = 2744; not great odds, but then not the miracle you imply, either.

However, if the births are all induced as they were in this case, the parents can choose (with favorable fertility and well-timed impregnation) to have the babies be born precisely when planned, making the odds of having three consecutive Leap Day babies approach 100%. David and Louise obviously understand this, and have planned their family accordingly. I suggest you sign up for either a sex education class or an elementary statistics class before you again attempt to mislead us all into thinking something inconceivable (pun intended) has happened.

Since I can't respond on our website I will respond here.
Dear Mr. Dumbass,
I assume you have never had any children and that you must be a man because you apparently don't know that nothing in pregnancy and childbirth is a sure thing. First of all the first baby born on leap year was an accident meaning the odds really were 1 in 1461. The second leap day baby born was also so an accident. Louise herself said it was a joke when she suggested it but it happened to work out. Only the third baby was planned to be born on leap day.
Second of all, even if you want to have a baby at a certain time it might not work out. It can sometimes take weeks or even months to get pregnant once you decide to try. And even then babies are anything but predictable. Case in point, another woman also featured in our paper was trying to have her baby on leap day but he just wouldn't wait and was born two hours too soon.
Also, the third Leap Day baby was 5 days past her due date, the mom herself said she wasn't sure if she would make it.
So the point is even if you are trying to have a baby on a certain date and are induced the chances of having 3 babies born all on the same day, a day that happens to only come once every 4 years, are slim. Maybe not 1 in a billion but much higher than you indicate and definitely no where near 100%. Babies and pregnancies are unpredictable.
Also please don't assume that just because I live in Utah and write for a Utah County paper that I have never had proper sex education. I understand that couples could conceivably plan down to the minute when they want their babies to be born, but unlike you, I also understand that pregnancies don't always happen they way they are planned. Otherwise there would be no need for NICU's or induced labors.
So I suggest you think about your comments before you put them out there for the whole world to see.