Sextuplets Born to Pennsylvania Woman

Stacey Carey speaking at a press conference about her sextuplets

Six teeny tiny babies born in Pennsylvania last week are hanging on, but still in critical condition. Doctors at Abington Memorial Hospital spoke about the sextuplets for the first time yesterday. "They are in no way out of the woods," said neonatologist Gerard Cleary.

Stacey and Brendan Carey welcomed 3 girls and 3 boys, named Emma, Samantha, Olivia, John, Patrick and Connor, on June 1^st. The premature sextuplets were born by cesarean section at only 27 weeks. There were 60 people on the medical team that delivered them, divided in to 6 color-coded groups – one for each baby. All six babies were delivered within 8 minutes.  "We were very prepared and practiced drilling a number of times," Dr. Cleary said.

The babies, who range in weight from 1 pound 1 ounce to 2 pounds 5 ounces, are receiving ventilator support, and they are being fed intravenously in addition to being given their mother's breast milk. They are expected to remain in hospital for another 3 months. Multiple-birth pregnancies increase the risk of preterm birth, which in turn heightens the risk of cerebral palsy, low birth weight and infant mortality. Infants born as early as the Carey sextuplets have a 10% chance of death and a 15% chance of significant disability.

Their mother, Stacey Carey, had been undergoing ovulation induction, a fertility treatment in which the ovaries are stimulated to release eggs with are then fertilized in utero by artificial insemination. Unlike with IVF treatments, there is no way of predicting or controlling how many eggs will be released or fertilized. If multiple embryos result from the treatment, parents are faced with the difficult decision of carrying a risky multiple pregnancy to term or selectively aborting some embryos in the 12^th week of pregnancy.

The Careys already have a 16-month old daughter, who was also conceived with the help of fertility treatments. At the press conference Stacey Carey elicited a chuckle, saying, "Our family of nine is now complete. We were not expecting a family this big but we are happy now."

On average, there is only one set of sextuplets born every year in the United States. This is the second set of sextuplets to be born in Pennsylvania in recent memory -- the state is also home to the famous Gosselin sextuplets, stars of the TV show Jon and Kate Plus Eight.