In the above photo:
Egyptian nurses tend to newborn septuplets at the el-Shatbi hospital in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria, Egypt, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2008. The newborns, four boys and three girls, were delivered by caesarian section at the end of the eighth month of 27-year-old Ghazala Khamis' pregnancy.
(AP Photo/Tarek Fawzy)
Darwish decided to carry out the Caesarean section at the end of Khamis' eighth month of pregnancy due to the pressure on her kidneys. He said Khamis, who already has three daughters, took fertility drugs in an effort to have a son.
Khamis, the wife of a farmer in the northern Egyptian province of Beheira, was admitted to the hospital two months earlier, Darwish said.
"From the initial checkup, I say that none of the babies have any sort of deformities or incomplete organs," Darwish said.
The woman's brother, Khamis Khamis, said even though his sister was trying to conceive more children so she could have a son, the family was astonished when they found out she would give birth to multiple babies.
"We thought about an abortion, but then we felt it's religiously forbidden. So we said 'Let God's will prevail,'" he told the AP by phone.
Egypt's health minister announced that the seven babies will receive free milk and diapers for two years, the brother added.
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An Egyptian woman has given birth to septuplets at a hospital in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria.
Emad Darwish, head of el-Shatbi hospital says the 27-year-old Ghazala Khamis is now in a stable condition, although she did require a blood transfusion during the Caesarean section because of bleeding.
The babies, four boys and three girls, who arrived at 34 weeks gestation, have been placed in incubators in four different hospitals since they were premature.
“This is a very rare pregnancy, something I have never witnessed over my past 33 years in this profession,” Darwish said.
He added that he decided to carry out the C- section at the end of the eighth month of pregnancy, due to the pressure of the womb on the mother’s kidneys.
The babies’ weights range from an amazing 3.2lbs to 6.17lbs. There must be a record here…Normally septuplets arrive weighing under 2lbs each because there are so many of them sharing such a small space/food supply.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they were all breathing on their own already…
Ghazala, who already has three girls, has been on bedrest for 2 months now. The babies are being called miracles because they were not conceived with the help of any fertility medication.
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Rare sextuplets born in Iraq, four survive
16 Aug 2008 15:16:29 GMT
Source: Reuters
NASSIRIYA, Iraq, Aug 16 (Reuters) - A woman has given birth to rare sextuplets in southern Iraq, but two of them died because the hospital lacked the proper equipment to keep them alive, her doctor said on Saturday.
Some Iraqi media described it as the first birth of sextuplets -- six children born at once -- in the country, although this could not be verified.
Sextuplet births are extremely rare although fertility treatments have increased the frequency of multiple births.
"Two of the children died because of problems breathing," said Dr Ali al-Jabiri, in charge of premature infants at Al-Habboubi Hospital in the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya.
"If we had suitable medical equipment then we could have saved them," he added.
The babies all weighed between 700 and 1,200 grams (24-44 ounces). Two boys and two girls survived. Their mother had used fertility drugs.
"The problem is, how can I take care of them? How to feed them?" said their mother, Ibtisam Najim Abid, at the hospital.
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TWO OCTUPLETS HOME FROM HOSPITAL
Story Image
Nadya Suleman arrives home with two of her babies
Wednesday March 18,2009
Two of the world's longest-surviving octuplets are home from hospital.
Nadya Suleman was sitting with her babies in the back seat of a car which arrived at her new four-bedroom home in La Habra, about 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
Suleman, an unemployed divorced mother, gave birth to the octuplets nine weeks prematurely on January 26 in Bellflower. She already had six children, aged two to seven.
The octuplets, who at birth weighed from 1lb 8oz to 3lbs 4oz, spent their first seven weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Centre.
The first two babies to be discharged, Noah and Isaiah, are each about 5lbs and are able to bottle feed, the hospital said.
The other two girls and four boys continue gaining weight and will be released another day, the hospital said.
"This is a happy moment for everyone - the family, physicians, nurses and entire NICU staff," said Dr Mandhir Gupta, a neonatologist at the medical centre. "It is always rewarding whenever a premature infant goes home as a healthy baby."
Dozens of media and others waited for hours outside the home for Suleman and the babies to arrive.
The octuplets will require around-the-clock care from at least two carers. Angels in Waiting, a non-profit group of nurses which specialises in caring for fragile infants and children, estimates the babies will need a combined 64 feedings a day.
The babies' historic births were initially met with curiosity and celebration, but a backlash against Suleman grew as the public learned that the 33-year-old mother had few means to support her brood. All 14 of her children were conceived through in vitro fertilisation at the West Coast IVF Clinic run by Dr Michael Kamrava, with sperm from an unidentified friend, Suleman has said.
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