The mother of a woman who gave birth on Monday to octuplets said her daughter already has six children at home and was undergoing fertility treatment.That's 14 children for her to feed and clothe from now on. As CNN.com says:
In her written statement the woman who delivered eight babies in five minutes said she would soon make public the details of her "miraculous experience."
"We understand that you are all curious about the arrival of the octuplets, and we appreciate your respect for our family's privacy," she said.
"The babies continue to grow strong every day 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," she added.
The six boys and two girls -- ranging in weight from 1 pound, 8 ounces to 3 pounds, 4 ounces -- are doing well following their Caesarean-section delivery at the Bellflower hospital, doctors said. They were born nine weeks premature.
Dr. Mandhir Gupta, a neonatalist, said all but one of the octuplets are now breathing on their own. That baby might be taken off breathing equipment Friday.
Doctors initially thought the mother was pregnant with seven fetuses. She was hospitalized seven weeks ago and ordered to bed rest.
During the seven weeks, a team of 46 physicians, nurses and other staff members prepared for the births. When they started the delivery Monday, they were in for a surprise.
"After the seventh baby was born, we were taking a sigh of relief," Maples said.
"It was a surprise of our life when we in fact discovered there was an eighth baby," she said. "We never had an assignment for baby H nurse or baby H doctor. We just had to go on the fly and figure out what to do."
I can only imagine what this woman must be thinking or planning. Of course in the back of my mind the Kilkenny man is thinking "All she needs now is one more for a hurling team."
Did you hear that she planned to breast-feed all 8 babies?? Craaaaazy woman!
ReplyDeletei wish i could be more enthusiastic about the birth of these octuplets, but i'm not. of course i'm glad they're all alive and healthy (at least for now), but i can't help but feeling like their mother did an increadibly insane/selfish thing. getting pregnant and having a baby you can't support by accident is one thing--it sucks, but it happens. but having eight viable embryos implanted when you already have six children at home? that's just selfish and cruel, if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteIt's a serious mind bender this.
ReplyDeleteI know all to well the draw to have and even grow your family, but why would you have fertility treatment with 6 kids already?
And treatment that would increase possibility of multiples at that?
Nuts.
'I can only imagine what this woman must be thinking or planning. Of course in the back of my mind the Kilkenny man is thinking "All she needs now is one more for a hurling team." '
ReplyDeleteHaha I like that :)
dont quite understand why everyone seems to be jumping on the mother and not even mentioning the father - surely it was a joint decision to undergo fertility treatments... and why is it selfish to want more children? And why must the assumption be (@Stephanie) that they 'cant support' said children? Floors me how people say things they dont know anything about.
ReplyDeleteWow! A lot of crappy opinions in the media! EVEN doctors quick to jump in to give there lame opinions. It makes me so mad to see so much judgment made on this woman and her doctors. It is called reproductive freedom people! One woman may choose to have 14 kids and another woman none. GEEZ if people cared this much about the war in
ReplyDeleteiraq or educating our children maybe our world would be so different.....
I still think it's nuts.
ReplyDeleteHaving 8 babies, born into incubaters...
The reality of this miracle is nothing delightful.
There's a great book called 'The Mammoth Cheese' about a woman whose community encourage her to give birth to all 11 babies (though that's not what the title refers to! And what it's like having 11 premature babies. I thought it was nothing more than fiction...