Lead image for Low sperm count, 12 years of waiting and finally, triplets.
The front door clicks open, and Bernard Okech welcomes us into their home in Athi River, Machakos County. Behind him is Joshua Shukurani, the middle triplet, clinging to his father’s leg. He studies each of us carefully, curious but too shy to say hello. His brother Joseph Imani has no such hesitation; he runs straight to the doorway and greets us with a fist bump. Moments later, Bernard’s wife, Easter Elisante, walks in carrying their lastborn, Immaculate.
Their living room has a gallery wall crowded with family photographs, the triplets given the most space. Everything in the house now comes in threes: the feeding chairs, the toys, the clothes. The wall, once plain white, is now scribbled over with crayon in different colours; a beautiful mess the couple say they waited years for.
Easter Elisante and her husband, Bernard Okech, during her 29th week of pregnancy, in a photo provided during their interview.
As the interview begins, Joshua latches onto his mother’s breast; he is the only one of the three still breastfeeding. Bernard settles Joseph on his right thigh and Immaculate on his left. About 20 minutes in, as if on cue, all three children fall asleep as their parents talk.
Also read: How doctors retrieve sperms from infertile men, help them become fathers
It is an ordinary, sleepy family moment, and one that took Bernard and Easter 12 years to reach. For most of that time, doctors in two countries kept looking for the problem in the wrong parent.