Multiple Births

About 865,000 more twins have been born in the United States over the last 30 years due to infertility treatments that boosted multiple births. Statistics released Wednesday by the federal government show that twin births rose 76% from 1980 to 2009. One in every 30 births in 2009 was a twin compared with one in every 53 babies in 1980. Twin births rose the most among women age 40 and older, who are most likely to undergo in vitro fertilization and other infertility procedures that increase the odds of becoming pregnant with twins.

A team of 46 doctors, nurses and surgical assistants at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center meticulously planned the births for weeks. As the date approached, they held two practice runs. They didn't want any surprises. But they got one anyway Monday morning when it came time for the delivery. "We had plans for seven babies. Then we found baby H," Dr. Karen Maples said. "My eyes got to be the size of saucers." It took only five minutes -- from 10:43 a.m. to 10:48 a.m.

Dr. Louis Gluck shook his head and beamed as he looked at his five small visitors Thursday at UCI Medical Center in Orange. He hadn't seen the children for almost three years. And he had delivered each of them, one after another, on Sept. 19, 1983, in San Diego: Regina, Paola, Natalia, Daniela and Alberto Garcin--quintuplets. The Garcins are the only surviving quintuplets ever born in California, according to the state Center of Health Statistics.

Two Brentwood publicists said they dropped octuplets mom Nadya Suleman as a client Saturday because they have received a slew of death threats. Suleman, a 33-year-old Whittier resident, was unmarried, unemployed and already had six children using a sperm donor when she gave birth to eight children from the same donor Jan. 26 at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Bellflower.

A week after she was born weighing just 10.3 ounces, the smallest of the octuplets delivered to a Texas couple died Sunday of heart and lung failure. Chijindu Chidera, nicknamed Odera, was pronounced dead shortly before 3:30 a.m. at Texas Children's Hospital here after medication and chest compressions failed to save her. "We are very saddened by the passing of our beloved baby Odera," the parents, Nkem Chukwu and Iyke Louis Udobi, said in a statement.

Even as the birth of octuplets at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center drew attention and applause from around the country, questions arose Tuesday about whether the mother's doctors did enough to prevent such a risky pregnancy. The chances that the eight babies born Monday were conceived naturally are infinitesimal, infertility specialists and doctors in maternal-fetal medicine say.

With help from fertility drugs and in vitro fertilization, Maura and Leo Lomeli are now the parents of quadruplets. Miriam, 4 pounds, 1 ounce, was delivered by caesarean section at 10:24 a.m. Sunday at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center. Her three brothers--Steven, 4 pounds, 3 ounces; Eric, 4 pounds, 11 ounces; and Leo, 4 pounds, 10 ounces--followed at 10:25 a.m. "I was scared and happy at the same time when I found out I was going to have four kids," said Maura Lomeli, 30.

If there's anything tougher than being a financially strapped single mother with a newborn child, it's being a single mother with twins. Or triplets. From Irvine to San Clemente, the Saddleback Mothers of Multiples helps both single mothers and families get through the emotional and financial tribulations of multiple births. Today, the South County group will hold an art auction to raise money to provide food and clothes to parents with twins and triplets who are having trouble making ends meet.

A woman gave birth to seven babies Saturday, setting a British record for multiple births, a spokesman at Liverpool Maternity Hospital said. The hospital said one boy died within half an hour of birth and that two boys and four girls were in intensive care. It said the babies were delivered nearly four months prematurely by Caesarean section. Hospital General Manager Pearse Butler would not identify the parents but said they had no other children. The mother was reported in good condition.

A 50-year-old Lompoc grandmother who received fertility treatments at a Northridge reproductive center delivered healthy quadruplets Thursday, apparently the oldest woman to have four children at once, hospital administrators said. "We wanted a child to make our marriage complete," said beaming dad Robert Fillippini, a 49-year-old welder. "To be blessed with four is just a miracle."