Octuplets — six boys and two girls — born in California

By Calvin Palmer

A woman in southern California today gave birth to octuplets, the world’s second live-born set of octuplets.

The two physicians who helped in the deliveries said they were only expecting seven babies.  Instead, 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.”

Henry said that hospital physicians and their assistants practiced two dry runs ahead of time.  “We planned well and it was well executed,” he said.

The babies were delivered by C-section between 10:43 a.m. and 10:48 a.m. at a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Bellflower, which is 17 miles southeast of Los Angeles. They each weighed between 1 pound and 15 ounces to 3 pounds and 4 ounces.

Maples said there were 46 people involved in the deliveries.

“It was exciting, a little anxious,” she said. “But we were prepared.” She said the mother should be released in a week but that the babies would probably remain in the hospital for at least two months.

The mother has asked not to be identified.

Dr. Richard Paulson, director of the fertility program at the USC Medical School, said: “Births of this kind are brought on by fertility medication, not in vitro fertilization. Often, during the medication, several of the mother’s eggs are fertilized.

“In most cases, the mother chooses to reduce the number of fertile eggs to two, to make sure the two remaining babies will have the best chance at having good health. To have all those babies, the mother would choose to have selective reduction. Apparently the mother made the decision to carry all the eight babies to viability.”

In 1998, the first known set of octuplets born in the United States arrived. The six girls and two boys were born in Houston. One of the babies later died. The others survived and recently celebrated their 10th birthdays.

[Based on reports by the Los Angeles Times and Associated Press.]