8 babies born to California parents who expected 7
By RAQUEL MARIA DILLON
Associated Press
2009-01-27 05:18 PM Fonts Size:
E-Mail This
Printer-Friendly
Doctors methodically delivered a mother's seven babies, five boys and two girls, just as they had repeatedly rehearsed.
Then came the eighth.
The surprising sixth boy and eighth child made Monday's mass birth not just remarkable but historic.
"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 at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center. "Ultrasound doesn't show you everything."
Just five minutes after the first birth, the unexpected eighth baby came out at 10:48 a.m.
"My eyes were wide," Dr. Karen Maples said.
It was just the second live octuplets birth in U.S. history.
Doctors said the babies _ who weighed between 1 pound, 8 ounces (0.69 kilograms), and 3 pounds, 4 ounces (1.47 kilograms) _ were born nine weeks premature but described their condition as stable. Two were placed on ventilators and a third needed oxygen.
"The babies are all doing well, and the mom is also doing well," Henry said. "There were no complications from the surgery to the best of my knowledge."
Hospital officials would not release the mother's name nor say whether she had used fertility drugs.
They did say she planned to breast feed all the children.
"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.
The mother checked into the hospital in her 23rd week of pregnancy and gave birth seven weeks later. 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, Maples said.
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.
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."
Dr. Richard Paulson, director of the fertility program at the University of Southern California, said the latest births likely resulted from the use of fertility drugs, and that the children could face serious health risks.
"It's a risky decision to try to have all eight babies," said Paulson, who had no role in the delivery. "I would not recommend it under any circumstances, but I respect a parent's decision."
The Bellflower medical center, located about 17 miles (27 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, has an advanced neonatal unit. The most infants previously delivered at the hospital was five, the Los Angeles Times said.
Quote from: Dew-Ax-238 on January 28, 2009, 06:14:40 AM
"It's a risky decision to try to have all eight babies," said Paulson, who had no role in the delivery. "I would not recommend it under any circumstances, but I respect a parent's decision."
Its a risky decision to TRY to have all eight babies? UGH. They make it sound like there is another option. I know what they are meaning by that, and it makes me sick.
I am glad this woman "chose" to have all her babies. But for me, it wouldnt be a choice. God made that choice already when He allowed her to conceive that many. It was Gods choice.
AMEN!! thanks for pointing that out.... I missed it.. I over looked that LOL
I can't imagine having 8 babies,,, never heard of that one before.. the most I've ever heard of was 6
Ooo.. Bellflower. Thats where my brother and his lady go to church! Very pretty.
Quote from: Dew-Ax-238 on January 28, 2009, 06:14:40 AM
"It is quite easy to miss a baby when you're anticipating seven," said Dr. Harold Henry,
That line cracks me up! Cheaper by the dozen, anyone? :biglaugh:
Mel, I know what you're saying, but it's extremely unlikely for women to naturally get pregnant with that many babies. Off the top of my head I don't remember the probabilities, but generally women have to be using fertility drugs (or have other 'help') in order for that to happen. In which case, they know the risk up front, and choose to take it. It's risky for both mother and children, not just either/or. But the abortion thing? Nuh uh. No way. If they want to take the risk of using fertility drugs, fine. But don't choose which children to keep and which to dispose of after they're already conceived. The choice comes BEFORE that point--not after.
:beret:
Very well said. I started typing, and I got all flustered and didnt really know how to put into words what I wanted to say, but naturally, you said it better. ;)
Thanks.
*laugh* You're welcome. ;)
:beret:
Quote from: SippinTea on January 28, 2009, 07:21:19 AM
Quote from: Dew-Ax-238 on January 28, 2009, 06:14:40 AM
"It is quite easy to miss a baby when you're anticipating seven," said Dr. Harold Henry,
That line cracks me up! Cheaper by the dozen, anyone? :biglaugh:
Mel, I know what you're saying, but it's extremely unlikely for women to naturally get pregnant with that many babies. Off the top of my head I don't remember the probabilities, but generally women have to be using fertility drugs (or have other 'help') in order for that to happen. In which case, they know the risk up front, and choose to take it. It's risky for both mother and children, not just either/or. But the abortion thing? Nuh uh. No way. If they want to take the risk of using fertility drugs, fine. But don't choose which children to keep and which to dispose of after they're already conceived. The choice comes BEFORE that point--not after.
:beret:
True, but they wouldn't have taken on life without God, and it's still up to God to give it or prevent it. Usually what happens is one or two babies don't get enough nourishment and may die but God saw fit to let all the babies live. So it wouldn't be up to man to take any of the lives away.
I don't see how she could ever have enough milk to breastfeed them all. :freaky:
Eight? How sad.
I mean, if you had 7 you could name them after the days of the week. If you had nine you could field a baseball team or five would give you a basketball team.
But what can you do with eight?
I guess you could start your own television show. Oh wait, that one was already done.
Eight? How sad.
Quote from: World Traveler on January 28, 2009, 06:16:15 PM
Eight? How sad.
I mean, if you had 7 you could name them after the days of the week. If you had nine you could field a baseball team or five would give you a basketball team.
But what can you do with eight?
I guess you could start your own television show. Oh wait, that one was already done.
Eight? How sad.
They could name one after the month they were born. And the rest could be the days of the week.
Quote from: Chseeads on January 28, 2009, 02:10:18 PM
I don't see how she could ever have enough milk to breastfeed them all. :freaky:
She wouldn't. The moms I've known of that had multiples had to choose which babies to breastfeed, and which to feed with formula. And considering the health problems that typically arise for multiples, it sort of becomes an issue of who needs mom's milk more. :-?
Okay, I admit it. I've always been intrigued by couples who had that many babies at once. And I enjoy reading about how they handle all the logistics of taking care of that many kiddos at once. Maybe there's something wrong with me. :bugeyed:
:beret:
Maybe some day you will have multiples and you're studying up for it! You never know!
Perhaps. But God would have to give me special strength then, 'cause I'm not exactly a very strong woman. I think there's a good chance a pregnancy like that would kill me. :smirk2:
:beret:
He would! :bigcheese:
Quote from: SippinTea on January 28, 2009, 09:15:26 PM
Perhaps. But God would have to give me special strength then, 'cause I'm not exactly a very strong woman. I think there's a good chance a pregnancy like that would kill me. :smirk2:
:beret:
You're a cold, mean, spiteful woman....those kind always outlast all the rest.
*sigh* I'm glad not everyone agrees with you, Seth.
:beret:
You're glad you won't outlast the rest?
More details on the octuplets family.
John :waving:
---------------------
Family: Octuplets' mother has 6 other children
By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer Thomas Watkins, Associated Press Writer
35 mins ago
WHITTIER, Calif. – The woman who gave birth to octuplets this week has six other children and never expected to have eight more when she took fertility treatment, her mother said.
Angela Suleman said her daughter expects a big challenge raising 14 children. The good news, she said, is all the babies appear healthy.
"I looked at those babies. They are so tiny and so beautiful," Suleman told The Los Angeles Times on Thursday.
Suleman's daughter gave birth to the octuplets Monday at a hospital in Bellflower but has requested that doctors keep her name confidential. Media knew little about the woman until a family acquaintance told CBS' "The Early Show" on Thursday that the mother is "fairly young" and lives with her parents and her six children, including twins.
Within hours, media had camped out at the family's home in Whittier, where the babies' grandfather pulled up in a minivan in the evening and briefly spoke to The Associated Press. Beside him were two children — a 7-year-old and 6-year-old — who said they were excited to have eight new siblings.
But the grandfather warned that media may have a tougher time finding the family after the babies are released from the hospital.
"We have a huge house, not here," said the man, who would only identify himself as Ed. "You are never going to know where it is."
Suleman said her daughter had embryos implanted last year, and after finding out she was pregnant with multiple babies was given the option by doctors of selectively reducing the number of embryos. The woman declined.
"What do you suggest she should have done? She refused to have them killed," Suleman told the Times. "That is a very painful thing."
Dr. Harold Henry said the woman was already pregnant when she came to Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center, and she was counseled on the option of aborting some of the fetuses. Doctors had been expecting only seven babies, but an eighth was born in the cesarean delivery.
The six boys and two girls, the second octuplets born alive in the United States, have garnered worldwide attention as media have attempted to find out more about the mother and her family. Hours after media gathered outside the Whittier home, Kaiser issued a statement on behalf of the mother requesting privacy.
"Please know, in our own time, we will share additional details about this miraculous experience," the statement read. "The babies continue to grow strong everyday and make good progress. My family and I are ecstatic about all of their arrivals. Needless to say the eighth was a surprise to us all, but a blessing as well."
Dr. Mandhir Gupta said seven of the babies were breathing without assistance. One was still receiving oxygen through a tube in his nose.
Seven of the infants were being tube-fed donated breast milk. One of the boys was expected to begin feedings Friday.
All babies continued to receive an intravenous nutritional combination. They were expected to remain in the hospital for several more weeks.
Some fertility specialists have said the children face increased health risks because they are octuplets and born nine weeks premature. At birth, they ranged between 1 pound, 8 ounces and 3 pounds, 4 ounces.
Doctors say they advise against higher-order births, but acknowledge the decision is not theirs to make.
"Who am I to say that six is the limit?" said Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg, medical director of Fertility Institutes, which has clinics in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York City. "There are people who like to have big families."
Dr. James Grifo, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the NYU School of Medicine, added: "I don't think it's our job to tell them how many babies they're allowed to have. I am not a policeman for reproduction in the United States. My role is to educate patients."
___
Associated Press writer Shaya Tayefe Mohajer in Bellflower and AP science writer Alicia Chang in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Holy moley.
:o
Just think, 14 flavors of cheese running around!!! :o
Or even worse, 14 rugrats that I help to spring forth! :freaky2:
:o
14?
Dear Lord.
There was a Baptist preacher back home that had 15........... with his wife, of course. They did it the hard way. Only one set of twins. The rest were single births. That poor woman must have worn maternity clothes for 20 years! :yikes:
My husbands mom was one of 18 kids and would have been one of 20 if her mom hadn't lost a set of twins.
My husband is one of 8 although his mom has already lost 3 kids as adults
Wow Sis, 14 pregnancies?
Assuming all pregnancies were carried to term, that'd be 126 months or 10.5 years of being pregnant.
....that poor poor family, lol.
The family was fine. I feel sorry for mom! :laughhard: We didn't see her much. Had some of the kids in my class, and in each of my brother's classes. They went to our Bible camp. They didn't have one to go to otherwise.
Sure the mom had to deal with 10.5 years of pregnancy, but the husband had to deal with her being pregnant for 10.5 years, lol.
Good point, Geek. Let's hope she had easy pregnancies. For the sake of both of them. :lol:
:beret:
Quote from: CDAGeek on January 30, 2009, 08:41:03 PM
Sure the mom had to deal with 10.5 years of pregnancy, but the husband had to deal with her being pregnant for 10.5 years, lol.
Now, that wasn't nice. LOL He could leave and go preach someplace. She was stuck with the belly and the kids, too.
yeah, but by the later pregnancies, at least the earlier kids would be old enough to help.
That's how it worked, then dad escaped and preached at the mission and a few other places. LOL
LOL, I bet he felt the Spirit leading him to long prayer meetings at the church too. Especially during the third trimester (all 14 of 'em!).
Well if they had 8 at a time it would have been a lot less trouble! :laughhard:
That's one sentence I never thought I'd see, lol
:speech: You heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen...
:o
What about the Dugger family from Ark, she just had here 18th child and wants more!!! They do NOT believe in Birth Control
Their oldest Josh just got married... the last show that I seen this week was his wedding they Said NO to pre martial sex and they even had their 1st kiss when they were pronounced man and wife. they say that they want lots of kids.....
who knows may- Josh's mom and wife will be pregnant at the same time LOL
Grandma: Octuplets mom obsessed with having kids
DILLON, Associated Press Writer Raquel Maria Dillon, Associated Press Writer – 2 mins ago AP – This image provided by Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center, shows the nursing staff posing for ...
Angela Suleman told The Associated Press she was not supportive when her daughter, Nadya Suleman, decided to have more embryos implanted last year.
"It can't go on any longer," she said in a phone interview Friday. "She's got six children and no husband. I was brought up the traditional way. I firmly believe in marriage. But she didn't want to get married."
Nadya Suleman, 33, gave birth Monday in nearby Bellflower. She was expected to remain in the hospital for at least a few more days, and her newborns for at least a month.
A spokeswoman at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center said the babies were were progressing daily, with all eight breathing unassisted and being tube-fed.
While her daughter recovers, Angela Suleman is taking care of the other six children, ages 2 through 7, at the family home in Whittier, about 15 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
She said she warned her daughter that when she gets home from the hospital, "I'm going to be gone."
Angela Suleman said her daughter always had trouble conceiving and underwent in vitro fertilization treatments because her fallopian tubes are "plugged up."
There were frozen embryos left over after her previous pregnancies and her daughter didn't want them destroyed, so she decided to have more children.
Her mother and doctors have said the woman was told she had the option to abort some of the embryos and, later, the fetuses. She refused.
Her mother said she does not believe her daughter will have any more children.
"She doesn't have any more (frozen embryos), so it's over now," she said. "It has to be."
Nadya Suleman wanted to have children since she was a teenager, "but luckily she couldn't," her mother said.
"Instead of becoming a kindergarten teacher or something, she started having them, but not the normal way," he mother said.
Her daughter's obsession with children caused Angela Suleman considerable stress, so she sought help from a psychologist, who told her to order her daughter out of the house.
"Maybe she wouldn't have had so many kids then, but she is a grown woman," Angela Suleman said. "I feel responsible and I didn't want to throw her out."
Little psychological research has been conducted on the reasons some mothers seem hooked on repeated pregnancies. David Diamond, a co-director for the Center for Reproductive Psychology in San Diego, said mothers can be drawn to repeat pregnancies for a number of reasons, with some finding the experience so satisfying they choose to become surrogates.
Diane G. Sanford, a psychologist and author specializing in women's reproductive mental health, said while she doesn't know much about Nadya Suleman's background, women that have obsessive-compulsive disorder can become fixated on different obsessions.
"Her obsession centers around children, having children and being a mother," she said. "To what degree are her esteem and identity based on being a mom and why has this from a young age been such a preoccupation of hers?"
Yolanda Garcia, 49, of Whittier, said she helped care for Nadya Suleman's autistic son three years ago.
"From what I could tell back then, she was pretty happy with herself, saying she liked having kids and she wanted 12 kids in all," Garcia told the Long Beach Press-Telegram.
"She told me that all of her kids were through in vitro, and I said 'Gosh, how can you afford that and go to school at the same time?"' she added. "And she said it's because she got paid for it."
Garcia said she did not ask for details.
Nadya Suleman holds a 2006 degree in child and adolescent development from California State University, Fullerton, and as late as last spring she was studying for a master's degree in counseling, college spokeswoman Paula Selleck told the Press-Telegram.
Her fertility doctor has not been identified. Her mother told the Los Angeles Times all the children came from the same sperm donor but she declined to identify him.
Birth certificates reviewed by The Associated Press identify a David Solomon as the father for the four oldest children. Certificates for the other children were not immediately available.
Angela Suleman told reporters Friday that doctors implanted far fewer than eight embryos but they multiplied. Experts said this could be possible since Nadya Suleman's system has likely been hyperstimulated for years with fertilization treatments and drugs.
The news that the octuplets' mother already had six children sparked an ethical debate. Some medical experts were disturbed to hear that she was offered fertility treatment, and troubled by the possibility that she was implanted with so many embryos.
"You should always shoot for one," said Dr. Marcelle Cedars, a professor and director of reproductive health at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center, who worried about the increased risk of potential health complications for the babies.
Others worried that she would be overwhelmed trying to raise so many children and would end up relying on public support.
"This woman could not comprehend the ramifications of having eight children of the same age at the same time," said Judith Horowitz, a Parkland, Fla.-based psychologist and author who works with couples on fertility issues. "After Pampers stops delivering the free diapers, then what?"
The eight babies — six boys and two girls — were delivered by cesarean section weighing between 1 pound, 8 ounces and 3 pounds, 4 ounces. Forty-six physicians and staff assisted in the deliveries.
___
Associated Press writers Thomas Watkins and Noaki Schwartz contributed to this report.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090131/ap_on_re_us/octuplets
Quote
"This woman could not comprehend the ramifications of having eight children of the same age at the same time," said Judith Horowitz, a Parkland, Fla.-based psychologist and author who works with couples on fertility issues. "After Pampers stops delivering the free diapers, then what?"
Worse than diapers, what if they all want a car for their 16th birthday?
Not to mention if they all want to go to college. Here's hoping they're either really smart or can throw a ball really far!
(http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20090127/capt.22426da07d254582ae1b294ff6275bb2.octuplets_la112.jpg?x=400&y=215&q=85&sig=5K5Y9jSSf.JKIh4mO9U8YA--)
Looks like Chel was one of the nurses. She has her face covered up.
I just can't imagine. *sigh*
I can't imagine either...I'm on my first pregnancy and dreading to have to do it again!
The bigger question is why have that many kids when you can't afford them, and then goes on major welfare.
Quote from: BrothaJason on February 20, 2009, 01:44:01 AM
The bigger question is why have that many kids when you can't afford them, and then goes on major welfare.
So that working people can pay her bills.
Quote from: CDAGeek on January 31, 2009, 09:51:02 PM
Worse than diapers, what if they all want a car for their 16th birthday?
Not to mention if they all want to go to college. Here's hoping they're either really smart or can throw a ball really far!
They can get a job and buy their own cars. Owning a car is a privilege, not a right. So is going to college. Work hard, save money, get scholarships, and go to college. Nothing says parents are required to pay for their offspring's post secondary education.
Though the government does imply it. When they apply for federal financial aid, their mom's income will be factored in without consideration for the 15 other siblings. That's bound to hurt.
It's unfair that parents income is used to justify whether or not a student should get financial aid.
Especially when that student is living on their own.
No disagreement here. Even if a person's parents do have money, doesn't mean they're willing to give it to their kids for school.