Octuplets Born in California Are Second Set in U.S. History
By Thomas Penny
Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- A woman gave birth to six boys and two girls at a hospital in California, only the second birth of octuplets in the U.S., doctors said.
The babies, who weighed from 1 pound 8 ounces (680 grams) to 3 pounds 4 ounces, were delivered by cesarean section early yesterday, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Bellflower, California, said in a statement on its Web Site. They were born nine weeks prematurely to a woman whose name hasn't been released by the hospital.
Medical staff, who thought there were seven babies, were surprised to find an eighth baby who hadn't appeared on ultrasound scans, they said at a televised news conference.
"It's incredibly easy to miss one baby when you are anticipating seven babies," Dr. Harold Henry, who helped lead the team, told reporters. "Ultrasound doesn't show you everything."
Henry said the birth, which involved a team of 46 people, had gone "flawlessly." The team had carried out a series of "dry runs" in preparation for the delivery, with the last one just minutes before the multiple birth.
Each of the babies cried spontaneously after birth, a good sign, the doctors said. The first 72 hours are the most critical for the newborns, who were doing well, the hospital said. Two were on ventilators, a third on oxygen and the rest were breathing on their own, the Associated Press reported.
The hospital didn't say whether the octuplets' mother had used fertility drugs. She plans to breastfeed all the babies, AP cited doctors as saying.
"She's a very strong woman, so she probably will be able to handle all eight babies," Dr. Mandhir Gupta, a neonatologist involved in the birth, told the AP.
Preliminary research shows it is only the second time octuplets have been born in the U.S., the hospital said. The first U.S. set was born in Houston in 1998. One died after a week and the other seven have just celebrated their 10th birthday, the AP said.
https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ayHdHDI7rIpM&refer=us
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