Texas Woman Now the Mother of Octuplets

HOUSTON —  A 27-year-old Houston woman became the mother of the world’s first surviving octuplets Sunday. Nkem Chukwu gave birth to five girls and two boys by caesarean section, 12 days after giving birth to a girl.

The babies were born 10 weeks premature, and their weights ranged from 11 ounces to 1 pound, 11 ounces. They were in critical but stable condition at Texas Children’s Hospital.

“It will be a remarkable feat if all the babies do survive,” said Dr. Brian Kirshon, who specializes in high-risk pregnancies and helped with the delivery. To help their chances of survival, the mother had spent weeks immobilized in a special hospital bed that tipped her head toward the floor.

The babies were on ventilators Sunday. With such small newborns, lung and heart problems are the immediate worries. After that, metabolic problems and infections are a danger, doctors said.

Chukwu, who had taken fertility drugs, was in stable condition at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, doctors said. She and her husband, Ike, a respiratory therapist, are Nigerian immigrants who had struggled with infertility and lost triplets in a miscarriage earlier this year. Partly because of that loss, the Chukwus enlisted the help of their doctors to keep the pregnancy as low-profile as possible.

“This is a very unusual woman, both physically and personally,” said Dr. Patti Savrick, the family’s pediatrician. “She is quite tall, at least 6 feet, and very focused; a very spiritual, serene person. She did what she needed to do.”

Chukwu showed extraordinary fortitude during her six-week hospital confinement, Savrick said. To relieve pressure on her cervix and prevent an even earlier delivery, Chukwu spent about three weeks lying in bed at an extreme angle. She offered to be fed intravenously to create even more room for the fetuses, but her doctors decided it wasn’t necessary.

About 25 people were present at the delivery, including three obstetricians. The entire delivery, performed with epidural anesthesia, took about 15 minutes, and medical personnel whisked each baby into intensive care soon after birth. A family spokesman said that Chukwu, who only saw the babies immediately after their births, “really believes these children are just a gift from God.”

Early in her pregnancy, Chukwu’s obstetrician approached the idea of limiting the number of fetuses carried to term, but Chukwu rejected the idea, Savrick said. Doctors were unsure exactly how many fetuses Chukwu was carrying until she delivered the first child vaginally nearly two weeks ago.

A sonogram showed the remaining seven fetuses, Kirshon said.

Because the Chukwus were so focused on the impending delivery, they didn’t prepare for public attention after the births, doctors said.

But by Sunday night, they were deluged by the media, and contacted a lawyer, who knows one of their obstetricians, to act as a spokesman. “They said, ‘Please, please come down here and help us. The whole world is descending on us,’ ” said the lawyer, who asked not to be named. “She has gone to remarkable lengths to stay away from publicity and stay in a position where these children could be born. I do think it’s appropriate for her story to be told, but I feel very strongly about protecting this woman.”

The largest multiple births to be medically documented occurred in Sydney, Australia, in 1971, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. The woman gave birth to nine children, all of whom died.

In the last 13 years, three other women have given birth to octuplets; all but six of those infants died.

In 1996, 32-year-old Mandy Allwood of Britain became pregnant with eight fetuses and rejected medical advice to abort some of them. None of the infants survived. Allwood was criticized for selling her story to a tabloid, with her fee based on how many infants lived.

Last year, Bobbi McCaughey of Carlisle, Iowa, who also took fertility drugs, delivered septuplets. All seven of the children survived.