Octuplets born in California doing 'very well'
Published: Wednesday | January 28, 2009
Doctors, Karen Maples (left), with Harold Henry (right), and Mandhir Gupta (centre), take questions at a news conference at the Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center in Bellflower, California, on Monday. A mother gave birth to eight babies in the hospital, south of Los Angeles, the world's third live-born set of octuplets. The mother, who asked not to be identified, gave birth to six girls and two boys weighing between 1.8 pounds (820 grams) and 3.4 pounds (1.54 kilograms). - AP
BELLFLOWER, California (AP):
Eight babies born to a mother in Southern California — only the second live-born set of octuplets in the United States — were in stable condition and breathing on their own, doctors said yesterday.
Dr. Mandhir Gupta, a neonatologist at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center, told ABC television that the babies "are doing actually very, very well."
Two of the newborns were initially put on ventilators, but their breathing tubes have been removed.
"Only three babies need some sort of oxygen through the nose right now but they are breathing on their own," Gupta said on Good Morning America.
The six boys and two girls were born Monday, weighing between 1 pound, 8 ounces (0.67 kilograms) and 3 pounds, 4 ounces (1.47 kilograms). The mother's identity has not been released.
The world's first live octuplets were born in March 1967 in Mexico City, but all died within 14 hours, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
The United States' first live octuplets were born in Houston in 1998, three months premature. The tiniest died a week after the birth. The surviving siblings turned 10 in December.
A blessing
Their parents, Nkem Chukwu and Iyke Louis Udobi, told The Associated Press that they were delighted to hear another mother managed the same feat.
"It's a blessing, truly a blessing," Chukwu said. "We'll keep praying for them."
The parents of the California octuplets and their doctors had been expecting only seven babies. Just five minutes after the first birth, the unexpected eighth baby came out.
"It is quite easy to miss a baby when you're anticipating seven," said Dr. Harold Henry, chief of maternal and fetal medicine and one of 46 doctors, nurses and assistants who delivered the children by Caesarean section.
Doctors said they repeatedly conducted practice sessions in anticipation of the deliveries and were well-prepared.
The babies — dubbed with the letters A-through-H — will probably remain in the hospital for at least two months and the mother should be released in a week, said Dr Karen Maples, chief of the department of obstetrics and gynecology.
The most encouraging news was that the smallest — Baby E, a boy — no longer needed a ventilator. Gupta described him as "very feisty" on Tuesday.