Posted on 01/27/2009 11:26:12 AM PST by gallaxyglue
By Associated Press Writer Raquel Maria Dillon, Mom delivers rare octuplets AP A woman gave birth Monday to eight babies, only the second time in history octuplets have survived more than a few hours, doctors said. The mother gave birth to six boys and two girls weighing between 1 pound, 8 ounces, and 3 pounds, 4 ounces, doctors at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center said. The hospital had scheduled a Caesarean section for seven babies, but doctors were surprised when an eighth came out at 10:48 a.m. "My eyes were wide," Dr. Karen Maples said, explaining her reaction to the last birth. Doctors said the babies were born nine weeks premature but are in stable condition. Two newborns were placed on ventilators and a third needs oxygen. Hospital officials would not release any information about the mother, including her name, condition or whether she used fertility drugs. They did, however, say she planned to breast feed all of them. "She's a very strong woman, so she probably will be able to handle all eight babies," said Dr. Mandhir Gupta, a neo-natologist who cared for the infants. All eight babies will probably remain in the hospital for at least two months and the mother should be released in a week, Maples said. Forty-six hospital staff and four delivery rooms were used for the latest octuplets' births. After one baby was born, staff rushed the newborn into another room and waited for the next, the hospital said. But despite weeks of preparation, doctors did not expect the eighth child. "It is quite easy to miss a baby when you're anticipating seven babies," said Dr. Harold Henry, chief of maternal and fetal medicine at the hospital. "Ultrasound doesn't show you everything."
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I’m trying to figure out the logistics of breast feeding eight babies. Are there enough hours in the day???
“Rare” octuplets, you say?
I say “Well Done!” :)
I’m really scratching my head on the nursing them all. I nursed my 3 also, for extended time, but I can’t see how I could have nursed 8! She will never do anything but suckle a baby if she really does that. However, maybe her plan is just to do it for the first few months to get them started.
And yes, it’s easy to miss one when you have a litter of puppies (yes we often sonogram) so I expect it would be easy to miss one in a mass pregnancy in humans as well.
8, wow. I cannot imagine what their life is going to be like for the next 10 or 12 years—and then 8 teenagers! Oh my!
Not one word about the father. I wonder why?
Probably because he can’t breast feed!!! Either that or he’s in intensive care in shock, poor guy!!!!
talk about being nipple deprived
At first glance, I thought the heading said ‘octopus’. Now that would be newsworthy.
—Does the mother have eight nipples on her belly? —
If she does, then she can nurse while laying on her side. It will make things a lot easier!
“I’m trying to figure out the logistics of breast feeding eight babies. Are there enough hours in the day???”
There once was a woman named Pat
Who had triplets, Matt, Nat, and Tat.
While fun in the breeding,
It was tough in the feeding,
For she found she had no t*t for Tat.
Send 'em back to the kitchen!
OK, now you’ve done it. Home Schooling? What? Are you crazy?
Seriously, I admire her for taking them to term, and not killing any of them. I wish the family the best. I simply cannot imagine raising 8 and certainly not 8 born all at the same time. This is a massive undertaking.
She’s sure going to need lot’s of help.
When will the fertility drug madness stop? This is a disaster.
Will she knock Jon and Kate plus 8 off the air??
Anyway, besides my questioning of her residential status, fertility drugs should be banned. Can't have a child? Adopt (an American born child, that is)!
First of all, I welcome all these little ones to the world! G-d bless them and their parents.
But a comment is needed here. When a couple undergoes IVF treatment through a reputable reproductive endocrinologist, the embryos are created outside the body, and a MAXIMUM of three, usually only TWO, embryos are placed into the mother's uterus.
However, a woman can be prescribed a medicine to create more ripe eggs inside her, or can "borrow" other women's unused medications. Without a doctor's careful oversight she can then have intercourse and many eggs can be fertilized within her. THIS IS WHAT CAUSES THESE HIGH ORDER MULTIPLE BIRTHS in all but a few cases. <> Of course there can be spontaneous high order multiples and there always has been. It's rare.
But there is danger in taking medications without a careful doctor to FORBID RELATIONS if s/he sees on the ultrasound that many follicles are ripening.
High order multiple pregnancies are dangerous to mother and children and are not seen as any kind of success by a decent doctor. In fertility treatments one tries to avoid them.
Adopting is not as easy as you think, though it is an absolutely wonderful way to create a family. There are pros and cons.
But don’t knock the wonderful ways doctors can assist couples in achieving pregnancy and family. In the most competent of hands, these medications and treatments have created many happy families. This woman, unless she conceived 8 embryos spontaneously as in the 1950s, either had poor medical care or none and took pills without aid of a doctor. Or perhaps she ignored the doctor’s demands that she not have relations.
While every baby is a blessing, high order multiples are dangerous for mother and children, and every reputable fertility doctor attempts to prevent these. It’s quite easy to do with IVF.
I hope she has a helpful hubby and extended family!
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