Bellflower, CA – The world’s second-ever octuplets were born Monday at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center, and doctors said the six boys and two girls were doing well.
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“Today we had an unprecedented, very exciting day in our operating room and labor delivery where our team of 46 physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists as well as surgical techs delivered eight babies, all live born,” Dr. Karen Maples said. “It was a truly, truly amazing delivery. The babies are currently in stable condition.”
Kaiser spokeswoman Mayra Suarez said the birth began at 10:43 a.m., and the babies range from 1 pound 8 ounces to 3 pounds 4 ounces. She said the mother has asked to remain anonymous.
Doctors said two of the babies, who were delivered by Caesarian section, have had breathing tubes inserted and were on ventilators, and a third needs some additional oxygen. But overall, the infants were crying and kicking and doing well.
The mother was also doing well, doctors said. The mother has asked to remain anonymous and asked officials not to release detailed information about her care — including whether she had been taking fertility drugs.
“The delivery process went very smoothly,” Dr. Harold Henry said. “We practiced several dry runs and the actual delivery process only took about five minutes to deliver all eight babies.”
Maples said the babies were delivered about nine weeks premature, and doctors were only anticipating seven of them.
“In anticipation of seven babies, we made sure we were prepared by doing some drills, some preliminary dry runs to make sure we had everything in place for these seven babies,” Maples said. “But lo and behold, after we got to Baby G, which is what we expected, we were surprised by the discoery of a Baby H, and that was the eighth baby that we delivered.”
Doctors said the first three to seven days are a critical time for such a mass, premature birth, but said the prognosis looked good for all of them. They also said it was not unusual for doctors to have been surprised by the eighth baby.
“It is quite easy to miss a baby when you have seven,” Henry said. “When you’re anticipating seven, it is extremely difficult to perform an ultrasound.”
The first live-born octuplets, six girls and two boys, were born in Houston in 1998. One of the girls died after a week.
The Kaiser Permanente doctors said they were still getting over the surprise of the octuplet birth.
“It was a shock, especially with the eighth baby, my eyes were definitely wide,” Maples said. “… And this patient was incredibly courageous, very strong, did all that we asked to … have an optimal outcome for delivery. She was a marvelous patient.”
mazel tov
Wow!
HaShems miracles never cease to amaze!
Was it C-section?
wow!!mazel tov ….i wish u lots of hatzlocha with them all …i wish you an easy upbringing have fun through out
hashem says to PELOSI yeh ill make miracle instead of birth control ill do this
Sounds like mishelanu, doesn’t want to be identified, I wish I would get 8 in 5 minutes, but I would rather 6 boys 2 girls, cheaper marrying them off.
I wonder how many weeks into the pregrancy the babies were born at. If it was 28 weeks or more, they really have a good chance of being fine. What a miracle!!
Big deal my great grandmother did it a couple of times in Egypt look in Rashi shemos
Mazel tov
Wowee what a handful wish them well by the terrible twos.I wonder how their schools will deal with them!!!
Pelosi should give her a tax break.
WOW!! Instant family right here… g’luck to the parents
She is very smart 4 keeping herself anonymous who needs the press after such an ordeal
amazing the parents are actually giving up the fame and possibility of having free diapers for life etc for privacy!
that gives me the good warm feeling even more than the story itself.
How many sholam zAchars and kidushim and brissim only simchos mazel tov
I think sea gate will give her a discount, or there will be some nice people to sponsor her stay there! She’ll need it!
To previous posters with questions, watch the video or read the article: Either or both indicated that it was a c-section, they are 6 boys and 2 girls (not 6 girls and 2 boys- those are the stats for the first set of octuplets mentioned), and they were 9 weeks premature= therefore presumably born at a minimum of 28 weeks of pregnancy.
nancy pelosi must be going nuts. Didn’t Nancy Pelosi say she wants birth control because it’s better for the economy?
Mazel Tov! Good for you nancy! Eat your heart out!!!!!
Baruch Hashem!
I’ll take mine one at a time, thank you. That is a big enough peleh for me!
It is obvious that these kids are not yiden.. so congratulations would be more appropriate!
by the way i saw a report that they thought there were only 7 but got a suprise when they found the 8th baby at the end!
I just moved back from California, to NY, both of my precious yingelach were born there in Kaiser Bellflower,, and I had Dr Henry too!! I could just cry,, wait,, I am crying!! I can tell you one thing,, much as I hated living in Cali,, that hospital treats their patients like absolute princesses!! I loved Kaiser, with all their chisroiness, because of the way the hospital treated me. DR HENRY Mazal Tov to you for a job well done!!!
As Rush Limbaugh said on his radio show something like this “dont tell Nancy Pelosi about this” she wont be happy.