US-Based Nigerian mum Thelma Chiaka gives birth to 6 babies in Texas
Thelma Chiaka gave birth to her sextuplets in 9 minutes at the Woman’s Hospital of Texas. The delivery occurred on March 15, 2019, between 4:50 am and 4:59 am. Thelma gave birth to two girls and four boys.
The babies are doing well
The babies are currently in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, but they are reported to be in a stable condition. The babies’ weights reportedly range from 1 pound 2 ounces to 2 pounds 14 ounces.
Mum is also doing fine
The doctors in the delivery team Dr. Israel Simchowitz and Ziad Haidar can be seen in a photo smiling with the new mum. The baby girls have been named Zina and Zuriel. Thelma will name the boys when she is stronger, she said.
The odds of having sextuplets are extremely low
Only 1 in every 4.7 billion women gives birth to sextuplets.
The complications associated with multiple births
According to AmericanPregnancy.com, having multiple babies could come with complication. For every additional baby a woman carries, the risk of pregnancy complications increase.
Some of the associated risks and complications are:
- Low birth weight
A newborn is said to have a low birth weight if they weigh less than 5.5 pounds at birth. Low birth weight comes with a risk of problems poor vision, hearing loss, and cerebral palsy.
2. Pre-term delivery
Additional babies decrease the length of gestation for a woman. The average length of gestation for single pregnancies is 39 weeks, but a woman carrying multiples could give birth as early as 30 weeks. There are more preterm deliveries in multiple births
3. Preeclampsia
Preeclampsia is more common in women carrying multiples than in single pregnancies.
4. Cesarean section
The odds of having sextuplets are quite low, and doctors mostly recommend cesarean sections for multiples from triplets and up.
5. Fetal demise
Fetal demise is a huge possibility when a woman is pregnant with multiples. This means that a baby could die in the womb, and when this happens, doctors may have to deliver the other babies prematurely.
Resource: American Pregnancy
Also Read: Planning an early birth might cause developmental problems for your baby
