This is a story of seeing is believing. Did you know that the odds of having sextuplets are estimated at one in 4.7 billion?
That is what The Woman’s Hospital of Texas , (United States), assures on its Facebook page, proudly counting that they have assisted a delivery of six babies, who were born in nine minutes. And both the mother and her children are fine.
Four boys and two girls
Last Friday, between 4:50 am and 4:59 am, Thelma Chiaka gave birth to six babies at the Women’s Hospital of Texas: three sets of twins (four boys and two girls). The newborns weighed between 794 grams and 1.3 kilograms . It is not specified if the delivery was natural or by cesarean section, but they ensure that all remain in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and that they are in good health, just like their mother.
According to The Houston Chronicle, Thelma will name her daughters Zina and Zuriel, although she has not yet decided on her children’s names.
This image of the hospital shows the mother posing happily with the medical team.
Having sextuplets is really unusual
As this Texas maternity assures, sextuple births are extremely rare, so they become news as soon as they occur, even more so if all the little ones succeed. This is becoming more common, because assisted reproductive pregnancies are also more frequent and neonatal medicine continues to advance.
We are talking about the rainbow sextuplets, whose evolution we can follow on their parents’ Facebook page (by the way, they are already walking).
Also from the Nigerian-origin couple from Richmond, who after 17 years trying to be parents, they succeeded thanks to a fertility treatment and with desire multiplied by six!
The fact is so unusual that even the DKiss television channel has broadcast since February a program entitled ‘Six by Surprise’, which follows the couple Eric and Cortney Waldrops (who already have three children) during their six-fold pregnancy, an uncommon gestation and that has numerous risks for both the mother and the little ones that are to come.
And that is precisely one of the controversies that have arisen about fertility treatments, which can make many embryos prosper with the dangers they pose to their health and the lives of their parents. And, if born well, the family will have to take care of six premature babies, with the extra care that it implies.
Although there are no statements from Thelma, the happy mother from Texas, about her current state, she surely thinks (or so we imagine as mothers) that the effort has been and is worth it, because she has six children by her side who, Like all children, they will fill her with joys and the odd little disappointment. Don’t you think the same?
Via | ABC News
Fotos | The Woman’s Hospital of Texas
In Babies and More | Octuplets Born in California, Twin Delivery: What You Should Know About Multiple Births
