A California woman shocked doctors by giving birth on Monday to octuplets, believed to be only the second set of eight babies born in the United States.
The six boys and two girls were doing well and were in stable condition in the neonatal intensive care unit, said Dr. Karen Maples at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in the Los Angeles suburb of Bellflower.
But two needed some help to breath with ventilators, she told a press conference.
The eight babies were born nine weeks prematurely by Caesarean section over a five-minute period, stunning a 46-member medical team that was expecting only seven babies.
They weighed between 1 pound 8 ounces (680 grams) and 3 pounds 4 ounces (1.47 kg) and doctors initially identified them by the letters A through H as they were born.
"We decided to proceed with the delivery in anticipation of seven babies. We had done some drills, some preliminary dry runs," Maples said.
"Lo and behold, after we got to Baby G, which is what we expected, we were surprised by Baby H."
Maples said she had been following the mother, who was not identified, since the first trimester of her pregnancy.
Citing patient confidentiality rules, the hospital declined to say whether the mother had become pregnant through fertility treatments, which can raise the likelihood of multiple births.
"It was a shock, especially with the eighth baby," Maples said.
via NewsDaily: Octuplets stun doctors at California hospital.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Octuplets stun doctors at California hospital
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3 comments:
She may have shocked the doctors, but she disgusted many other people. The use of these fertility drugs should be banned and the use of them declared unethical. Couples who cannot conceive should be offered psychological help to learn to come to terms with the fact that they cannot have children. Just because science can do something doesn't mean it should be done. We live on an overpopulated planet and our numbers and activities are impacting the planet's capacity for supporting life as we know it. So it is unconscionable that any couple would be so irresponsible to bring octuplets into the world.
wow, crazy looking picture -- they're all the same!
Based on the caption on flicker, "This was a fun afternoon of play for Meg. Though she did get tired of me saying "Smile!" I think this particular photo is just one girl put into the same scene 8 times with photo editing software.
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