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US octuplets raises questions over pregnancy

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-29 10:33

LOS ANGELES - The recent birth of octuplets at a Los Angeles hospital has drawn applause from around the United States, but a controversy has also emerged over whether the mother's doctors did enough to prevent such a risky pregnancy.

Kaiser Permanente's 52 member labor and delivery team for the octuplets.[Agencies]

Doctors at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center in Los Angeles said the eight babies, six boys and two girls, are doing well after they were delivered on Monday by cesarean section 9.5 weeks early.

Related readings: Mother gives birth to octuplets

The babies, ranging in weight from 1 pound 8 ounces to 3 pounds 4 ounces, are the second-ever set of surviving octuplets born in the United States.

The first live-born octuplets in the United States, including six girls and two boys, were born in Houston in 1998. One of the girls died after a week.

Medical experts say it is virtually out of the question that the eight babies born in the Los Angeles hospital were conceived naturally, noting that reproductive experts have the tools and the know-how to avoid such high-risk pregnancies.

"When we see something like this in the general fertility world, it gives us the heebie-jeebies," Michael Tucker, a clinical embryologist in Atlanta and a leading researcher in infertility treatment, told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday.

"If a medical practitioner had anything to do with it, there's some degree of inappropriate medical therapy there," he added.

According to Geeta Swamy, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke University, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists encourage doctors to make efforts to curb these higher-order multiple gestations.

"But it really is still up to the individual physician. There aren't any laws or legal ramifications to it," said Swamy.

The parents of the octuplets born in Los Angeles have not been identified, and Kaiser officials said they have not been authorized to release information to the public on how the babies were conceived.

Higher-order multiple births, defined as three or more babies born together, are considered dangerous for babies and the mother, medical experts said.

Problems in premature babies, including learning disabilities or cognitive delays, are often not apparent until years after their births, they added.

Infertility experts generally try to prevent multiple births because of the myriad potential health problems for mother and babies and because such births consume enormous financial resources for hospitals, health insurers and families.