Babies

California Woman Gives Birth to Octuplets

By Stephen M. Silverman

Tuesday January 27, 2009 07:10 AM EST

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A woman in Southern California gave birth to eight babies – six boys and two girls ranging in weight from 1 lb., 8 oz. to 3 lbs., 4 oz., and delivered within five minutes by Caesarean section on Monday, reports CNN.

The mother, whose name is being withheld at her request, is the second person so far known to have given birth to living octuplets.

As of Tuesday morning, all eight arrivals were doing well, their doctors at Kaiser Permanente hospital in Bellflower, Calif., said on the Today show. Initially, three of the octuplets, who were nine weeks premature, required help breathing.

The eight of them will spend about two months in an incubator, the hospital said, but the mother, who plans to breast-feed all her children, will be able to leave hospital in one week.

"It was a truly amazing delivery," said Dr. Karen Maples, chief of the hospital's obstetrics and gynecology department, who also said that only seven babies were originally expected.

In 1998, a Nigerian-born woman in Texas gave birth to octuplets, seven of whom survived. One of the babies was born on Dec. 8, 1998, the others 12 days later.