Hi all,
Don't know if anyone saw this yet.
Ellen Shein, 
Tel Aviv

 Octuplets Born in California Are Second Set in U.S. History 
2009-01-27 10:47:58.536 GMT 



By Thomas Penny 
     Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- A woman gave birth to six boys and 
two girls at a hospital in California, only the second birth of 
octuplets in the U.S., doctors said. 
     The babies, who weighed from 1 pound 8 ounces (680 grams) 
to 3 pounds 4 ounces, were delivered by cesarean section early 
yesterday, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Bellflower, 
California, said in a statement on its Web Site. They were born 
nine weeks prematurely to a woman whose name hasn't been released 
by the hospital. 
     Medical staff, who thought there were seven babies, were 
surprised to find an eighth baby who hadn't appeared on 
ultrasound scans, they said at a televised news conference. 
     "It's incredibly easy to miss one baby when you are 
anticipating seven babies," Dr. Harold Henry, who helped lead 
the team, told reporters. "Ultrasound doesn't show you 
everything." 
     Henry said the birth, which involved a team of 46 people, 
had gone "flawlessly." The team had carried out a series of 
"dry runs" in preparation for the delivery, with the last one 
just minutes before the multiple birth. 
     Each of the babies cried spontaneously after birth, a good 
sign, the doctors said. The first 72 hours are the most critical 
for the newborns, who were doing well, the hospital said. Two 
were on ventilators, a third on oxygen and the rest were 
breathing on their own, the Associated Press reported. 
     The hospital didn't say whether the octuplets' mother had 
used fertility drugs. She plans to breastfeed all the babies, AP 
cited doctors as saying. 
     "She's a very strong woman, so she probably will be able to 
handle all eight babies," Dr. Mandhir Gupta, a neonatologist 
involved in the birth, told the AP. 
     Preliminary research shows it is only the second time 
octuplets have been born in the U.S., the hospital said. The 
first U.S. set was born in Houston in 1998. One died after a week 
and the other seven have just celebrated their 10th birthday, the 
AP said. 

For Related News and Information: 
Search for stories on the octuplets' birth: NSE OCTUPLETS <GO> 
Top U.S. news: TOP US <GO> 
Top health care news: TOP HEA <GO> 

--Editors: Heather Langan, John Deane 

To contact the reporter on this story: 
Thomas Penny in London at +44-20-7673-2532 or 
[log in to unmask] 

To contact the editor responsible for this story: 
Peter Torday at +44-20-7330-7539 or 
[log in to unmask] 

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