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Six Babies Born to One Mom in Vancouver; Family Asks for Privacy

Posted on: Tuesday, 9 January 2007, 09:00 CST

By STEVE MERTL AND CAMILLE BAINS

VANCOUVER (CP) - Both the family of Canada's first set of sextuplets and the hospital where they were delivered are playing down the remarkable births.

The parents of the six newborns - each not much bigger than an outstretched hand - are understandably interested in privacy.

And officials at B.C. Women's Hospital, while finally confirming the weekend births Monday, seemed surprisingly blase about the singular event, as if it was all in a day's work.

Hospital president Dr. Liz Whynot said the first baby came around 8:30 p.m. Saturday night, with the others born early Sunday.

"Mom is resting and doing well," said Whynot. "The babies are in fair condition, which means their vital signs are stable and within normal limits."

Citing the family's desire for privacy, neither Whynot nor chief neonatologist Dr. Brian Lupton would reveal any details other than the babies were almost three months premature.

Sources told news outlets that four boys and two girls were born, each weighing about 1.8 pounds.

Lupton told a news conference Monday babies born this prematurely average 700 to 800 grams - 1.5 to 1.8 pounds.

Whynot said the parents are Jehovah's Witnesses and "are focusing all their energy on their new family.

"While they understand there is a lot of public interest in the birth of their babies, they are feeling overwhelmed. So they're asking for their privacy to be respected."

Lupton said Canadian babies born at 25 weeks have an 80-per-cent chance of surviving to leave the hospital.

"The average length of stay for a 25-week gestation baby in Canada is around 100 days of neonatal intensive care," Lupton said.

Despite the strong odds, Canada's first sextuplets will face steep challenges.

Babies born between 23 and 25 weeks are considered on the borderline of viability, Lupton said.

Such an early delivery means all the baby's organs are immature.

Typically, such babies have underdeveloped lungs that require artificial ventilation and problems with eating.

Their skin is thinner - revealing a network of veins - and their underdeveloped immune systems make them more vulnerable to infection.

They also weigh less and look leaner than chubby full-term babies because fetuses gain most of their fat in the final weeks of pregnancy, Lupton said.

The cost of caring for such premature babies range from $1,000 to $2,000 per child per day, he said.

Once they leave neonatal intensive care, the infants many need some home followup, such as additional oxygen.

Long term, they also face potential neurological and development deficiencies, vision and hearing problems.

"Pre-term babies are very individual," said Lupton. "Many go home not needing any different resources from any other baby, though we do make sure they get more careful followup from a developmental point of view after discharge.

"A small number have problems that are more persistent from their stay in the nursery."

Despite his hospital going into Canadian record books, Lupton maintained almost a clinical detachment.

He refused to say whether the births excited him nor whether sextuplets offered a unique learning or research opportunity for the hospital and its staff.

Lupton said his unit has lots of experience with severely premature babies and with multiple births, including quadruplets.

"It (sextuplets) is something that is within the parameters of the sort of thing we deal with," he said. "Clearly it's not something you're dealing with every day . . .

"I am used to looking after babies of 25 weeks gestation - we look after many each year - and these infants fit into that group of patients."

Obstetrician Dr. Timothy Rowe, who heads the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of British Columbia, said he is deeply concerned about the six babies.

"I felt for the babies and the mother, thinking this is what everybody doesn't want to happen," Rowe said.

"One, getting this number of babies, and two, getting them born so early.

"They're certainly in the best possible hands, that's the comfort. But they certainly have a long road ahead of them."

Rowe said naturally conceived sextuplets occur only once in several billion births.

The six tiny babies born on the weekend were likely conceived through the use of fertility drugs, he said.

Neither Lupton nor Whynot would reveal if fertility drugs were used.

Rowe said he still marvels at Canada's most famous multiple births - the Dionne quintuplets - who were delivered healthy in May 1934 by a country doctor in a rural northern Ontario farmhouse.

The five girls were made into a spectacle when the government put them on display.

Rowe said the six premature infants born in Vancouver will face several health challenges, including underdeveloped lungs and blindness.

Medical advances mean a lot can be done for premature babies that would not have been possible even just a few years ago.

"It's the last big pediatric milestone, I guess, to try and get past severe prematurity," said Rowe, who practises at the University of B.C.'s infertility clinic, responsible for Canada's first baby born through in vitro fertilization 23 years ago.

"The babies that are born reasonably premature are very common and the neonatologists are very good at dealing with them," Rowe said.

"It's these extremely premature ones that are still the holy grail, to try and find a way to deal with them."

Source: Canadian Press

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