Octuplets stable and ‘doing very well’
The six boys and two girls were delivered yesterday at the Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Centre in Los Angeles.
Initially, two of the newborns were put on ventilators. But one of the doctors involved confirmed they were now all breathing on their own.
Dr Mandhir Gupta told ABC’s Good Morning America the eight babies “are doing actually very, very well”.
Dr Gupta said: “Only three babies need some sort of oxygen through the nose right now but they are breathing on their own.”
The octuplets were born nine weeks premature to a mother who has not been named. They weighed between 1lb 8oz and 3lb 4oz and were delivered by Caesarean section within five minutes. Medical experts said the latest births likely resulted from the use of fertility drugs and not in vitro fertilisation.
Doctors and the babies’ parents had been expecting seven babies, with the eighth coming as a surprise.
Dr Harold Henry, chief of maternal and foetal medicine, said: “It is quite easy to miss a baby when you’re anticipating seven.”
He added: “Ultrasound doesn’t show you everything.”
The unexpected eighth baby came out at 10.48am, five minutes after the first.
Dr Henry was part of a birthing team that consisted of 46 doctors, nurses and assistants.
They had repeatedly conducted practise sessions in anticipation of the deliveries.
All of the babies — dubbed with the letters A to H — are expected to remain in hospital for at least two months.
The smallest, a boy named Baby E, weighed in at 1lb 8oz. Although requiring artificial respiration at first, he has since been taken off the ventilator.
In 1998, octuplets were born to a mother in Houston, Texas. The smallest died a week after the birth. But the seven other siblings survived and turned 10 in December.
