This is quite a surprise…
On Monday morning, a woman in California gave birth to octuplets–eight babies at once, that is! And yes indeed, baby number eight was a surprise to the 46-member team at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, near Los Angeles.  “It’s a surprise,” said Dr. Karen Maples, head of the medical team. “Eight newborns are in stable condition and they’re doing quite well.”

Delivered at 31 weeks gestation via cesarean section, six boys and two girls emerged screaming and kicking. All eight babies are stable, but will likely remain in the NICU for another two months. Two of them are on ventilators.

The smallest of the children was just 1 pound 8 ounces, but the largest was 3 pounds 4 ounces–not bad for multiples. The childrens’ names, as well as the parents’, have not yet been released. But the babies were at first identified by the letters A through H as they were lifted out. Maples said the team had practiced the delivery ahead of time, though they were prepared to only make it to baby “G.” “My eyes got to be the size of saucers,” said Dr. Maples. “We just went on and delivered the babies.”

This is the second confirmed live birth of octuplets in the United States. A Houston, Texas, couple had eight babies in 1998, though one of their daughters died within a week. The surviving seven siblings are now in fourth grade. Their parents are Nigerian immigrants, Nkem Chukwu and Iyke Louis Udobi. Their advice to the new parents of octuplets? “Just enjoy it. It’s a blessing, truly a blessing.”

Though the hospital cannot confirm whether the mother used fertility drugs, it is quite likely. Other women with multiples have been advised to “selectively reduce” the weakest babies. But high profile cases, such as this one, continue to defy such medical wisdom. Of course, it may be too early to know whether or not the babies have any medical problems, but families such as the Dilley Sextuplets seem to be progressing without serious health issues. I interviewed the Dilleys at their Indiana home in 1997, and at that time, they were all healthy and well, but a little difficult to corral. So anyway, the fear of just chasing around 2 crawling babies–much less 6 or 8–would be enough to send me running from fertility drugs!

An even bigger shock to me, personally, is the astounding fact that the mother of these new octuplets plans to breastfeed all of them! More power to you, ma’am. You’re amazing. Now, try and get some sleep before they all come home!

An unnamed 59 year old Frenchwoman, of Vietnamese origin, gave birth to triplets on Saturday night. After seeking in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Vietnam, the woman delivered two boys and a girl by cesarean at a Paris hospital. According to a spokesman, ‘everything went smoothly.’ The babies are healthy, weighing between 4 lbs 9 oz and 5 lbs 5 oz. No further details have been released yet.

There is obvious controversy surrounding this announcement. In France, the maximum age set by most clinics for a woman to participate in IVF is 42. In Vietnam it is 45. According to French media, it is illegal to provide fertility treatment to a woman past natural childbearing age. And according to at least one spokesman for the Catholic church, it is wrong. Archbishop Andre Vingt-Trois said, ‘On this particular point, scientific progress is not good for mankind.’ But she is not the first, nor the oldest, Frenchwoman to have accomplished this.

A baby was born in 2001 to a 62-year-old. And a 70 year old Indian woman gave birth to twins after receiving IVF treatment.

I’m still on the fence about this. But I’m leaning toward thinking if a woman wants a child this badly, I believe she’ll probably do her best to be a good mother. The life expectancy for a Frenchwoman, according to the CIA World Factbook, is 84. So it’s not like she won’t be able to see the children grow up. And I have had several close friends and a family member go through the pain of infertility, so I understand why couples pursue IVF, though I don’t think I’d do it myself. I’m not sure why a country would even have laws about how young you have to be to get pregnant. I also don’t agree with the Archbishop who thinks it’s bad for mankind.

For my part, I just don’t know why anyone would want to have a baby at that age. I’m feeling too old sometimes for my 5-month old, and I’m ‘only’ 35. My OB told me there was still plenty of time to have babies, but I think he must be working on job security. Because, as long as I have a say about it, I’m done.

Lisa Marie Presley must be doubled over with joy. Her camp has finally confirmed to Entertainment Tonight the rumors that she is expecting twins.

This will be her first children with husband Michael Lockwood. If not for multiples running in the family, her Dad – remember Elvis Presley? – was a twin, I’m sure conjectures regarding IVF would be swirling by now.

Older sister and brother Danielle Riley, 19, and Benjamin Storm, 15 – with first husband Danny Keough, will complete the family circle.

Congrats to the family!

As a mom of twins, I always try to keep myself updated on the latest news about multiples.

American researchers gathered data on multiple births in 2004 and reported in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology the following statistics:

• 139,494 babies were born of multiple pregnancies
• 132,219 babies were born as twins
• 6750 babies were born as triplets
• 439 babies were born as quadruplets
• 86 babies were born as quintuplets or higher order multiples.

The high rates of multiple births in the US are attributed to assisted reproductive therapies (ART). 35% of pregnancies and 34% of births made possible by ART resulted in multiple pregnancies in 2003. ART accounted for 44% of triplets and 16% of twins who were born in the US in 2003.

With multiple pregnancy comes risks to the mother and the babies. The main risks are preterm labor/delivery and low birth weights. The higher the order of multiplicity, the higher the risk. Compared to twins, triplets tend to be born on the average 3.5 weeks early. For quadruplets, it’s 5.4 weeks on the average. However, very premature births occur. In 2003, 5.6% of twins, 16.9% of triplet births and 28.3% of quadruplet births resulted in delivery before 29 weeks of pregnancy.

The health risks of very premature babies who survive are numerous and include:

• low birth weights
• congenital heart defects
• respiratory problems
• hearing and vision impairment
• cognitive impairment.

For the mothers of multiples, the following risks are significantly increased:

• gestational diabetes
• pregnancy-induced hypertension (preeclampsia)
• incompetent cervix
• premature rupture of membranes
• excessive bleeding during labor

The National Organization of Mother of Twins Clubs, Inc. (NOMOTC) will hold its 48^th Annual Convention on July 20-26, 2008 at Boston’s Park Plaza Hotel. NOMOTC is a non-profit corporation that was founded in 1960. It serves as a support group for parents of twins and high order multiples.

The organization is composed of a network of more than 450 local clubs representing over 25,000 individual parents of multiples – twins, triplets, quadruplets and more. Its mission is to support families of multiple birth children through education, research, and networking and work hand in hand local support groups, health care providers, researchers, and educators. This year’s convention is sponsored by the Massachusetts Mothers of Twins Association.

The keynote speakers for the convention are Jon and Kate Gosselin. Jon and Kate are the hosts of the TLC’s reality show “Jon and Kate plus 8“. This couple are parents to twins who wanted another baby but ended up with six more. Their show tells about the unedited story of their unique life as parents of seven-year old twins and three-year old sextuplets. Jon and Kate can be seen on Discovery Health or The Learning Channel.

Wow! Four babies in one go, three of them identical.

This is a very rare occurrence. Quadruplets as such are not that common. The chances of having spontaneous quadruplets amount to 1 in 729,000. The odds of having multiples have increased in recent years due to fertility treatment. In 2005, 485 quadruplet births were recorded, according to the National Organization of Mothers of Twins Clubs. But such a 3 plus 1 set of quadruplets is extremely rare. Less than 100 cases have been documented in the US since

The babies were born to a couple in Belcamp, Md last January 29 through assisted reproduction. Two embryos were implanted in the mother’s womb. Both were viable but one even went further and split to produce three more viable embryos, resulting in 4 babies.

As mom of twin boys, I have some idea of the amount of work involved with multiples. I’m sure that taking care of 4 babies seems like a daunting task for the parents. However, help is given to those who need it. Nowadays, there are many organizations and institutions who are there to provide assistance to parents of multiples.

Source:

AOL News, 18 April 2008

My twins were born 5 weeks early and were thus considered premature babies with low birth weights. I was always warned by many people, from our pediatrician to well-meaning friends that premies, especially twin premies tend to be weak and develop more slowly compared to singleton babies born on the same gestation week. Well, I am happy to say that my boys proved them wrong. They started walking at 10.5 months, were perfectly bilingual at age 3, and have age-appropriate fine and gross motoric skills.

I guess all these misconceptions about multiple premies may have some valid basis. Previous studies show that multiple-birth premies, especially those born on or before the 32nd week, tend to have more health problems compared to singleton premies.

Recent research results, however, show this is not necessarily true. Canadian researchers observed that there are no big differences in health outcomes between single and multiple premies, except in the following:

? Multiple premies tend to have higher incidence of respiratory distress syndrome
? Multiple premies are less likely to have severe retinopathy, an eye disorder
These findings show that there is no reason to underestimate preterm multiple birth babies at all.

Source:

Obstetrics & Gynecology 2008; 111: 365-71.

My wife and I did the whole in-vitro thing. In fact we did it four times. Three full rounds, with one round using our cryogenically frozen kidlets left over.

First round failed, second round failed, third round failed, and the fourth? Yeah, bupkis.

And then, we conceived without any intervention at all, except for perhaps a couple bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon, thus solidifying the question about whether or not God has a sense of humor.

Anyway, given our experience with in-vitro, when I read the news about Christa and Joseph MacKinnon, I spit my Americano half way across the room.

Feel free to follow the link, but here?s the summary:

Christa and Joseph MacKinnon went the in-vitro fertilization route to try and have their second child. They were cautious enough to put only two fertilized embryos in Christa?s uterus in order to minimize the likelihood of multiples. The most they could possibly get would be two ? but the odds were stacked against that outcome, statistically.

Well, they didn?t get two. They didn?t even get one.

They got four.

How is that possible, you ask?

According to the article, it was a 70-million to one chance, but BOTH embryos split, thus creating two sets of identical twins. This may solidify that the “big guy” upstairs has a particularly biting sense of humor.

Congratulations to the MacKinnon?s. You might want to write to Ty Pennington over at ABC about his Extreme Makeover, Home Edition…

There?s no more interesting conversation piece than babies. And having multiples actually put you in the limelight. Try it. Go to the mall or the park with a twin pram. Heads will turn and many will definitely ask to have a peek. Initially, I basked in the attention I got when I went out with my twins. After all, which mom wouldn?t want to show off her adorable babies? But then it got to the point when the attention got on my nerves. And then there are the questions. Some are quite normal questions but some are downright stupid and even offensive. Here are the 10 most common questions I encountered during the first 2 years of my twins? life:

1. Are they identical?
2. Who?s older/stronger/weaker?
3. Who`s your favorite?
4. Are they a lot of work?
5. When did you know?
6. Was it normal or CS delivery?
7. Why do you dress them alike/differently?
8. Which side of the family has twins? Yours or his?
9. Do they have ESP?
10. Are they IVF babies?

In the next posts, I?ll tell you how I answered each and every question.
But I`m curious: what are the most common questions that moms of singletons encounter?

Did you know …

• The number of twin births has increased by 50% in the last 20 years; the number of triplet births is up by over 400%; the birth rate for higher-order multiples (4 babies and more!!!) is also on the rise.

• In 1996, there were 50,000 twin births in the US (100,000 babies), 5298 babies were born as triplets, 560 babies were born as quadruplets, and 81 were born as quintuplets or higher-order multiples.

• In 1997, more twins were born to women aged 45 to 49 years of age than during the 10 years of the 80s.

• Moms of white, non-Hispanic ethnicity have the highest chance of having twins and multiple; Asian (especially Filipinos and Chinese!) have the lowest twinning rates.

• Of all the states, Nebraska and New Jersey have the highest triplet (+) birth rates ? their rates a twice that of the national average!

Sources:

P. Maxwell Malmstrom & Janet Poland, 1999. The Art of Parenting Twins. ISBN 0-345-42267-8

Martin et al. Trends in Twin and Triplet births, vol. 47, September 1999. National Vital Statistics Report.