More "It's a uterus, not a clown car!"

[ducatiz]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/health/28octuplets.html?_r=1&em

we have enough headache with 1 dude.  EIGHT!!

Size 5 Diapers are almost 30 cents each.. That's at least 5 diapers /day per kid once they are about a year old.. sheesh

January 28, 2009
7 Babies, Then (Surprise!) Another for Good Luck
By ANAHAD O'CONNOR

Dr. Harold Henry and his colleagues had followed their patient for 10 weeks, and knew just what to expect. The woman was carrying seven babies. Multiple ultrasounds confirmed it every time: 7 heads, 7 spines and 28 limbs, all packed into a space typically only several centimeters in diameter.

“Each time, we thought we were validating that there were in fact seven babies,” said Dr. Henry, the chief of maternal and fetal medicine at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center in southern California.

But when the time for delivery came on Monday morning, there was one wrinkle. After the seventh baby was plucked from the womb, an assistant announced that he felt another foot.

“Quit joking,” Dr. Henry shot back.

When the assistant insisted this was no joke, Dr. Henry reached in and confirmed it.

“That's when the room all of a sudden became quiet,” Dr. Henry said in an interview. “Everyone was in shock, including mom herself. She just couldn't believe it.”

Baby No. 8 marked a small miracle. For only the second time in recorded American history, a woman had given birth to live octuplets. The odds of being struck by lightning are better.

The mother, who has declined to be identified, was recovering and in stable condition, her doctors said at a news conference on Tuesday.

And as of Tuesday morning, so were her children â€" two girls and six boys â€" all weighing from 1 pound, 8 ounces to 3 pounds, 4 ounces, said Dr. Henry. One initially needed a ventilator, which was removed a short time later.

But because the babies were born nine weeks prematurely, they will remain in the hospital at least two months. Dr. Henry said the mother, who should be released in about a week, was overwhelmed but in good spirits.

“She is of a very strong constitution,” he said.

Because high-multiple babies are typically delivered prematurely, it is rare for all of the children to survive. But if all eight make it home, as doctors expect, they will set a record. Septuplets are the largest set of multiple babies delivered in the United States who survived, the last of which were delivered in Iowa in 1997. A year later, a 27-year-old mother, Nkem Chukwu, delivered eight babies in Houston â€" including six girls and two boys â€" but the smallest, a girl weighing only about 10 ounces, died a week after birth.

According to experts, at least two factors are known to increase the odds of a multiple birth. One is age: the older a woman is, the more likely she is to naturally give birth to multiple babies, though scientists are not exactly sure why. The second factor is modern medicine. Women who undergo techniques like in vitro fertilization are more likely to have multiple babies because doctors typically implant multiple embryos in the uterus at once, knowing that some are unlikely to survive.

Dr. Henry and his colleagues have declined to say whether the mother in Bellflower used fertility drugs. But studies suggest there is a great likelihood of it. In the United States, twins occur in about one of every 83 conceptions, while triplets appear about once in every 8,000 conceptions. Beyond that, multiple births become exceedingly rare. In 2005, the latest year for which figures are available, there were 4.1 million children born in the United States, and only 68 births that involved five or more children â€" many of which resulted from infertility treatments.

Beginning in 1980, there was an explosion in the number of births that involved triplets or a greater number of babies, a trend that mirrored the rise in fertility treatments and older mothers giving birth. But since 1999, the number of multiple births has been steadily falling, partly a result of recommendations in the late 1990's that doctors performing fertility procedures reduce the odds of multiple births by limiting the number of embryos they transfer.

Until Monday, the most babies ever delivered at the hospital in Bellflower was five. But Dr. Henry said they were well prepared for seven â€" or eight, as it turned out.

[Oldfisti]

“She is of a very strong constitution,” he said.

   Reminds me of this line...


"She's skinny but she's strong.  First baby, came out sideways.  She didn't scream or nuthin."

[LMT]

But Wait!  There's More!!!

[derby]

"She's skinny but she's strong.  First baby, came out sideways.  She didn't scream or nuthin."

"...isn't that something... you're a real trooper."

[lethe]

But Wait!  There's More!!!

8 for the price of 7, what a bargain!

[the_Journeyman]

Multii-discount?

JM

[ducatiz]

“She is of a very strong constitution,” he said.

   Reminds me of this line...


"She's skinny but she's strong.  First baby, came out sideways.  She didn't scream or nuthin."

"...where's your hand??!!.."
>>waves hand<<<
"...THE OTHER ONE!!!???""

AAAAAGHHH

[Scooter Montgomery]

I hope the doctor said "And now for something completely different" on number 8.



Then said just kidding, more of the same.

[Popeye the Sailor]

Need one more for a crew team.



I keep telling Paula we need nine kids.

[swampduc]

Not only 8 kids, but 6 of them are boys  . It would be much less painful to just end it now.

[Jobu]

Not only 8 kids, but 6 of them are boys  . It would be much less painful to just end it now.

That article never mentions the father.  It just says how strong the mother is.

The father jumped out the window.

[Big Troubled Bear]

That article never mentions the father.  It just says how strong the mother is.

The father jumped out the window.

That`s what I would have done

[SP3]

this might shed a little light on the "father" subject. Why am I not surprised?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/29/earlyshow/health/main4761676.shtml?source=mostpop_story

[JEFF_H]

It will, Kauffman concluded, "be tight!"

<snicker>

sorry.

[SP3]

Quote
It will, Kauffman concluded, "be tight!"

<snicker>

sorry.

<snicker>

sorry.

Sure it will, after plenty of stiches.