Octuplets make an early appearance today

No one really plans to have multiple births. Usually, difficulty getting or staying pregnant causes a couple to consider fertility drugs. I believe this was the case with this family. According to some "authority" whom I heard on the Today Show earlier, multiple embryos were implanted in this woman's uterus, but usually "survival of the fittest" prevails and only one or two survive. Apparently 8 were implanted and 8 survived!

“They are doing amazingly well at this time,” said Dr. Mandhir Gupta, a neonatologist who was part of the team of 46 doctors, nurses and others who took part in the cesarean section delivery. But he added: “I won’t be able to comment on chances of survival because we’ve never had eight babies born at 30 weeks before.”
Obstacles aheadThe odds of survival drop off dramatically in multiple births, particularly if there are more than three babies. The risks include breathing and eating difficulties and growth problems because their lungs and other systems are often underdeveloped. They also may have hearing or vision problems and learning disabilities as they mature.
In fact, the risks in multiple births are so high that when a woman is pregnant with more than three babies, doctors routinely recommend “selective reduction,” or aborting some of them. But Dr. Harold M. Henry, director of maternal-fetal medicine for the hospital, would not discuss what took place in this case.
The babies were still in incubators and their mother had not been able to hold them yet. Three had oxygen tubes up their noses to help them breathe.
"All babies seem to be stable," Maples told NBC's TODAY. "All of them are now breathing on their own and are no longer requiring ventilators."

The first four were expected to begin taking milk sometime Tuesday, with the others shortly after that.
“That’s the biggest test,” Gupta said. “We want to make sure that they start tolerating and digesting the milk.”
The mother plans to nurse the babies herself, which are now being fed pumped breast milk, Gupta told TODAY.
"Right now, we are really encouraging her," Gupta said. "She is going to breast-feed the babies.
A little surpriseThe woman and her doctors were actually expecting seven children, not eight. The delivery team was thinking the hard work was over after that seventh baby was removed from the womb, when another physician spotted another little hand, Maples said.
The mother reacted calmly to the news, said Dr. Jalil Riazi, an anesthesiologist. “Her question was, ‘Really, an eighth baby? How did we miss that baby?”’ he said.
"There are multiple spines and heads and shoulders, with movement of the babies during the ultrasounds," Maples told TODAY. "So, it's not unusual at some times, especially during these high order multiples, that you can miss another baby."
List of octuplets born
The eight children, in the order of their appearance, born at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center.
— Baby A, a boy, weighing 2 pounds, 11 ounces, born at 10:43 a.m.
— Baby B, a girl, weighing 2 pounds, 12 ounces, born at 10:44 a.m.
— Baby C, a boy, weighing 3 pounds, 4 ounces, born at 10:45 a.m.
— Baby D, a girl, weighing 2 pounds, 8 ounces, born at 10:45 a.m.
— Baby E, a boy, weighing 1 pound, 8 ounces, born at 10:46 a.m.
— Baby F, a boy, weighing 2 pounds, 12 ounces, born at 10:47 a.m.
— Baby G, a boy, weighing 1 pound, 15 ounces, born 10:47 a.m.
— Baby H, a boy, weighing 2 pounds, 11 ounces, born at 10:48 a.m.
Baby H was a surprise to the delivery room team, doctors said they repeatedly conducted practice sessions in anticipation of the deliveries and were well prepared.
The mother had checked into the hospital in her 23rd week and spent nearly two months working with doctors in preparation for the big day. Mainly she got a lot of bed rest, Maples said, while the medical team repeatedly conducted practice sessions.

Adult 'preemies" in the NICU

Here's a fascinating experiment! Would you try it?
Adult 'preemies' get NICU treatment
By Lois M. Collins
Deseret News
Published: Friday, Jan. 9, 2009 1:06 a.m. MST

The room is dark and mostly silent, except for the sound of a heartbeat that seems to reverberate everywhere. "Baby" lies on the floor, eyes closed and peaceful. Then the doors fling open and noisy people rush in, grasping at Baby, repositioning her, using a tongue depressor the size of a paint stirrer and taping an oversized straw in her mouth. At 28 weeks' gestation, she's about to be admitted to intensive care, with all the testing that entails.
Strangers fuss with her diaper and someone positions an ice-cold stethoscope. Before they're done, she will have had cold liquid on her skin, been talked to VERY loudly and had lights shined in her pried-open eyes. The tape that secures the tube in her mouth will be pulled off — and probably re-applied and pulled off again.
It's enough to make a grown Baby want to cry, as the adult volunteers playing Baby learned in a special training Thursday called "Preemie for a Day" at University Hospital.
Imagine how all the poking and fussing feels to actual preemies in an intensive care unit, said Kay Johnson and Michelle Waddell, child development experts from Children's Medical Ventures, which presents the training worldwide. The session was sponsored by the hospital and March of Dimes, which has a family support program in the U. Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, said spokesman Stephen McDonald.
At times the volunteer babies had trouble stifling laughter, but the message was serious: Little things like shielding a real preemie's eyes from the light or warming gel before applying it make a huge difference. And stress is harmful not only to healing, but to development.
Later, Johnson said, some of the volunteers will say they were cold. That's easily fixed. Some will say it was too loud. That's something staff can change, too.
This type of training is not just about comfort. Proper handling aids a premature baby's brain development — and certain things can disrupt it. It's possible, for instance, to bypass complete auditory development as you push visual stimulation. Poor positioning can set up later problems with receptiveness to touch and body alignment and more.
The training also helps staff deal with and guide the stressed-out families of preemies. Take touch: preemies have different tolerance for it. Education and collaboration helps families figure out what pleases and soothes the baby. Petting, for instance, may irritate the baby but is instinctual for some parents.
Johnson emphasized the need for NICUs to transition babies so when they go home they're not facing abrupt and disruptive changes, especially during sleep. Premature babies, she said, make the "top five" on the shaken babies list, adding more urgency to helping them be good sleepers and less fussy at home.
Respect was another theme. "How many of us know who this baby will become," Johnson said, adding that if staffers always respect the baby, the parents and their own co-workers, "you will never make a mistake."
"This reinforces how powerful touch is," said occupational therapist Sarah Meyer after the training. "What we do really does have impact on these babies long-term and on brain development. We can influence development."

Your unborn baby's hearing

Throughout my three pregnancies I wondered, "can my baby hear the music around me; can she hear my conversations with friends and family?" Well, I didn't know the answer then, but I do now! The developing ear is beginning to be functional by the beginning of the second trimester! Research shows that around the beginning of the 4th month, baby can hear Mom's heartbeat, digestive sounds and circulation sounds. Over the next six months hearing grows and by the last trimester baby can pretty much hear what you hear! What does this mean for the health of the baby? If you sing or hum a carefully selected 6 or 8 tunes for baby, these very same songs, sung after baby's birth, will calm and soothe baby immediately! They will be associated with warmth, nurturing and feeling safe. If perchance your little one comes early these songs will help her to gain weight faster, stabilize body rhythms and temperature and go home as much as five days earlier! According to hospital bills, one day in the neonatal intensive care unit is over $15,000 per day!! So start singing!!If you don't know any lullabies, order my CD "Lullabies for Healthy Bonding." Link to this CD here.