A Nigerian couple who tried to conceive for 17 years have welcomed sextuplets into the world at a hospital in Virginia, USA.
Ajibola Taiwo gave birth to three boys and three girls with weight ranging from 1 pound, 10 ounces to 2 pounds, 15 ounces via caesarean section on May 11.
Mrs Taiwo and her husband, Adeboye Taiwo, heard four heartbeats when they went to their first ultrasound in November only to discover they were expecting two more in January.
“I was excited,” said the father. “For the very first time we were expecting.”
A team of 40 people, who practiced drills and resuscitation exercises in advance, delivered the babies, according to Susan Lanni, the medical director of labour and delivery at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Medical Center in Richmond.
Taiwo was 30 weeks and two days pregnant at the time of delivery.
“A typical labour and delivery shift includes one, perhaps two premature births, usually with time in between. We had to coordinate with our colleagues in the NICU for six premature babies to be delivered simultaneously,” Lanni said.
The babies’ mother was discharged from the hospital on May 18, while the six newborns continue to thrive in the intensive care unit.
“I hope for the smallest of my six children to grow up and say ‘I was so small, and look at me now,’” she said.
“We’re going through this extraordinary journey together with the family,” said Ronald Ramus, M.D., director of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at VCU Medical Center. “It’s not every day that parents bring home sextuplets. Mrs. Taiwo was eating, sleeping and breathing for seven. A lot of the support and encouragement we gave her to make it as far as she did was important, and one of the biggest contributions we made as a team.”
Mr Taiwo said everyone performed beyond his expectations from the time they arrived at VCU Medical Center.
“The medical team is excellent in medicine and hospitality,” he said. “We are far from home but the medical team is our family. That is what got us this far.”
The Taiwo sextuplets were the first delivered at VCU Medical Center.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2015 there were nearly 4 million live births in the United States, only 24 of which were quintuplets or other higher order births.
