Octuplets Born in Bellflower, California

by Terri Potratz | January 26, 2009 at 04:57 pm

4706 views | 31 Recommendations | 17 comments

A set of eight babies, or octuplets, was born in Bellflower, California at Kaiser Permanente hospital this morning. Octuplets are extremely rare, and there has only been one other case of live-born octuplets on record, born in Houston, Texas at three months premature. The smallest died a week after birth from heart and lung failure, and the surviving seven children are now 10 years old.

There were a whopping 46 people involved in delivering these octuplets and it turns out the eighth child was a surprise to everyone involved, as there were only 7 expected:

Two physicians who helped in the deliveries said they had planned in advance for the c-section deliveries but were only expecting seven babies. They got six boys and two girls.
“My eyes got to be the size of saucers,” Dr. Karen Maples said when it became obvious there was an eighth child. “We just went on and delivered the babies.”

“The orchestrated delivery went off without a hitch,” added Dr. Harold Henry. “The babies are all doing well and the mom is also doing well. There were no complications from the surgery to the best of my knowledge."

Mom should be released from the hospital next week, though the tiny infants will likely remain in hospital for about two months.

A mother has given birth to eight babies in a hospital south of Los Angeles, the world's second live-born set of octuplets.

Dr. Karen Maples told KCAL-TV that the babies were born Monday at Kaiser Permanante and were "doing quite well."

The hospital says the mother, who asked not to be identified, gave birth to six girls and two boys weighing between 1.8 pounds and 3.4 pounds.

Dr. Harold Henry told KCAL that "they were all screaming and kicking around very vigorously."

The survival rate for octuplets has not been very high in previously documented cases, though highest survival rate was for those octuplets that were born in the United States. Doctors seem optimistic that this second set of live-born octuplets will remain healthy.

UPDATE - 10:10 AM PST:

Apparently all eight babies are breathing normally and without the assistance of ventilators, which is a very good sign, though complications may develop when the infants begin feeding. The mother had checked into the hospital at week 23, and gave birth 7 weeks later (8 weeks prematurely.)

Further reports note that six boys and two girls were delivered, settling conflicting reports that it six girls and two boys were born.

The first confirmed birth of octuplets occurred on March 10, 1967 in Mexico City, Mexico to Maria Teresa López de Sepulveda. All of the babies—four boys and four girls—had died within 13 hours of birth.[101][102][103]

The Chianese octuplets (born August 16, 1979 in Naples, Italy) were born to Pasqualina and Stefano Chianese. Six of the babies died and two survived. The couple had previously lost a set of sextuplets in 1976.[104][105][106][107][108]

A set of octuplets were born on December 20, 1985 to Sevil Capan of Imzir, Turkey. Born prematurely at 28 weeks, six of the octuplets died within 12 hours of birth, and the remaining two died within three days.[92][109]

A set of octuplets were born between September 30 and October 2, 1996 in a hospital in South London, United Kingdom to Mandy Allwood of Solihull. Allwood was only 19 weeks pregnant when she went into preterm labour and none of her octuplets survived.[110]

A set of octuplets were born on December 5, 1996 in Huelva, Spain to Rosario Clavijo. Two of them were stillborn and six survived.[111][92]

The Chukwu octuplets (born in December 1998 in Houston, Texas) were the first set of octuplets born in the United States. The smallest of the octuplets, Odera, died a week after birth.[112]

A set of octuplets were born between September 13 and September 16, 2000 in Milan, Italy to Mariella Mazzara and Giovanni Pierrera of Trapani. One died immediately after birth, two within a few days of birth, and the oldest, Margherita, died a month later on October 10.[113][114]

The use of fertility treatments in this case is likely.

For a look at the ethical considerations surrounding multiple births and fertility treatments, see this related NowPublic story:

Mother of Octuplets and Six Other Kids Sparks Ethical Debate

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend This comment thread is now closed

158

at 17:32 on January 26th, 2009

We can only hope mother and babies will be ok.

Terri Potratz

at 17:43 on January 26th, 2009

Absolutely. Early reports look optimistic.

Brendolyn (not verified)

at 18:04 on January 26th, 2009

Good Lord, that's a litter! Bless them all and the parents as well.

countessmommy (not verified)

at 20:10 on January 26th, 2009

well which is it two girls and six boys or six girls and two boys???

harringtola

at 22:22 on January 26th, 2009

Thank you for all the remarkable details. Hope there will be updates.

MathTeacherGuy

at 23:25 on January 26th, 2009

CNN and Yahoo news both said six boys and two girls. Our local TV news said the opposite. CBS and the LA Times both have the six boys and two girls in their stories. More important, at this time the hospital and news sources seem to offer hope for survival of all. All of the babies were at birth weights which ought to make them viable with excellent care. Amazing. Wow.

-mathteacherguy, Santa Clara, California

Terri Potratz

at 10:13 on January 27th, 2009

Looks like it is 6 boys and 2 girls - I have updated the story above to reflect this. All the confusion is probably an appropriate foreshadowing of how crazy this new family of 10 is going to be...

Anjel Nicholas (not verified)

at 08:03 on January 27th, 2009

Good Luck to her and all her family

- they will be busy around the clock for years to come!

Kudos to her for not agreeing to a 'selective reduction' of the babies in vitro.

She must be a woman of very positive consciousness. She took a huge chance on her own health and future lifestyle as well.

I hope it all goes well for them and all the kiddies thrive.

I would say ''many blessings'' to them .. but I suppose somebody already said that

;-) and here they all are! All 8.

Namaste.

I wonder of she will do pliats to help get control back of all her unrinary organs etc

Anjel Nicholas (not verified)

at 08:05 on January 27th, 2009

ps That was 'Pilates'

It strengthens the pelvic floor.

;-)

Sally H. (not verified)

at 11:49 on January 29th, 2009

First of all thank goodness all of the infants are breathing and healthy. I'm sure the parents are hush-hush because of privacy problems or endorsements are on the way. I'm guaranteed they have sign contracts with many people. A good way to make a living!

Yuliya Talmazan

at 14:13 on January 29th, 2009

There are now reports that the woman who has given birth to octuplets already has 6 kids.

The California woman who astonished doctors earlier this week by giving birth to octuplets at a suburban Los Angeles hospital already has six other children, CBS News reported on Thursday.

Terri Potratz

at 14:16 on January 29th, 2009

Wow. I wonder what the ages of the other 6 are - hopefully old enough to help take care of the 8 additions to the family!

teri (not verified)

at 10:12 on January 30th, 2009

no insult, but these types of multiple births are for cats, dogs, and rabbits.

and if this woman has 6 children already, what would she need, or want w/more, now a total of 14. let alone 6 children in todays economic situation. sounds unstable and very unwise decision on her part, and the doctor.

questions, where is the husband? or is there any father helping to support these children who are totally helpless to the instability of the adults decision?

what should be a happy occasion is and may turn into a struggle for the mother, the poor children who had no choice in this insanity, and the parents of the mother whom the 33yr mother of the children now lives with. i find this irresponsible, and very unstable mentally!

this is a sad situation and it seems to continue w/this irresponsible society.

Joe-1971

at 07:18 on January 31st, 2009

QUADRUPLETS WOODBERRY SILVA, FROM CARACAS VENEZUELA

Joe-1971 has contributed a photo to this story.

kckimcliff (not verified)

at 13:05 on February 20th, 2009

Has the question been asked , Has she been a good mother to her other 4 children? have they ever been abused in any way? Have the other 4 children ever gone without food or clothes , or there shots , or without a home? Or has she really loved these children and taken care of them, how ever within the law that she could? there are alot of abused children, that have died at the hands of there parents. Has anyone asked which one of these children would you not wont here, now that they are here? And have we asked ourselves do we wont her to fail and not love her children, or do we wont her to love and take care of each and everyone, and hope that they grow up and be the great blessing that they are?

harringtola

at 20:03 on February 20th, 2009

There are 6 other children and she is raising them with her parents while living in her parents home.

angel bosley (not verified)

at 15:44 on March 10th, 2009

i am very upset that this is happining and i think the children should have the house and the mother should keep the house she had. peoplehave worked really hard to have a famliy and to keep a family for someome to come into the world and to makre a mockery of it!!!

i married at 16 and have been married for 32 years i love my childern and i love my country but most of all i love the fact that we have a right of speech and i think that what has happened is a person has let her personal needs exced what is right for human life.