U.S.

Septuplets' Mom Stays Put

July 13, 2001 / 9:12 AM EDT / AP

A woman who gave birth to septuplets in the nation's capital last week won't be going home Tuesday as originally thought.

Despite word earlier that the prolific mother might leave Washington's Georgetown University Hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said she'll remain there a little while longer.

The 28-year-old mother underwent a Caesarean section last Thursday to deliver her seven children.

Meantime, doctors say they've put one of the babies back on a breathing machine because breathing on his own made him tired.

That infant and one of his siblings will continue to receive the mechanical help until their lungs mature.

Doctors say the babies have a 95 percent chance of survival — but they'll need hospital care for at least eight weeks. A team of specialists is assigned to each infant.

The five boys and two girls are known to the world only as Baby A to Baby G; the mother's name has also been kept secret.

The mother had received fertility treatments to increase ovulation, a common practice for women who have difficulty conceiving.

Dr. Mutahar Fauzia, the woman's personal physician, said the parents felt "fear and hope together" when she told them they had conceived seven times.

Some women with multiple conceptions from fertility treatments choose to halt development of one or more of the fetuses in order to give the others a better chance of survival.

Fauzia said she advised the parents of their medical options and they chose to go forward with all seven.

"The patient is a Muslim and she did not believe in taking the life of the babies," said Fauzia.

The babies were born after 28-and-a-half weeks. A full-term pregnancy is typically about 40 weeks.

Doctors said the babies weighed between 2 and 2.4 pounds. A healthy, mature birth weight is 5.5 pounds or more. The infants were between 13 and 14 inches long.

Dr. Craig Winkel, chairman of Georgetown's obstetrics and gynecology department, said the babies scored between 7 and 9 on the Apgar scale, a measure of newborn health that has a top score of 10.

"Seven is quite a good score for premature babies," said Dr. Edward E. Lawson, chief of premature infant care at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center in Baltimore.

National statistics show that more than 20 percent of babies born in sets of five or more do not survive their first year. But Lawson said the Washington seven probably have a much better chance because of their birth weights.

The mother was ordered to stay in bed at her home earlier this year, but eventually Fauzia decided to seek the help of Georgetown. The mother went into the hospital last month and, except for bathing and using the bathroom, was kept in bed for weeks.

The number of births of five or more babies in the United States has almost doubled since 1989 — reaching 79 in 1998 — largely because of fertility treatments that can cause multiple births.