Woman gives birth to octuplets
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
A Californian woman has given birth to eight children in five minutes.
The unidentified woman, who had the children by Caesarean section, is only the second recorded woman to deliver live octuplets in the United States. She had two girls and six boys, each weighing between 1lb 8oz (680g) and 3lb 4ozs (1.47 kg), at the Kaiser Permanante Medical Center in Bellflower, southern California.
Staff at the center had expected seven babies and were surprised when an eighth was found after the rest were delivered. The children will be kept in incubators for their first six weeks. Their mother is said to be planning to breastfeed them all.
The only other set of octuplets to be delivered alive were born to Nkem Chukwu and Iyke Louis Udobi in Houston, Texas in December 1998. Their smallest child — born at 11oz — died of respiratory failure at age one week. The remaining seven children have just recently turned ten years old.
Sources
- Raquel Maria Dillon. "Octuplets born 'screaming and kicking' in Calif." — The Associated Press, January 27, 2009
- Associated Press report. "California woman has 8 babies in 5 minutes" — The San Francisco Chronicle, January 27, 2009
- "US woman gives birth to octuplets" — BBC News Online, January 27, 2009
- "Octuplets stun doctors at California hospital" — Reuters, January 27, 2009
