Santo Domingo – A neonatal specialist said Tuesday that the Dominican Republic’s first-ever birth of sextuplets is a “tragedy,” citing among other factors the high costs to the hospital of caring for the infants, who were born two months’ premature.
The babies – three girls and three boys – were delivered Monday by Caesarean section. Their mother, 33-year-old Maxima Perez, got pregnant after undergoing fertility treatments.
“This is nothing for us to brag about,” Dr. Luis Rivera, adviser to the medical team attending the mother, told a press conference. “No, this is a national tragedy.”
The physician said the birth of the sextuplets represents “terrible” financial burdens on the parents as well as on the hospital, which must now care for six infants ranging in weight from 800 grams (1.76 pounds) to 1,000 grams (2.2 pounds).
Rivera urged Dominican authorities to regulate the use of fertility drugs.
Perez and husband Emilio Figuereo both work for a firm that manufactures haircare products. The couple already had a 5-year-old daughter, but were anxious for a son, so Perez took fertility drugs.
She was 29 weeks into the pregnancy when she gave birth at Santo Domingo General Hospital.
Dr. Francisco Martinez, who heads the hospital’s pediatric department, said two of the sextuplets are breathing with the aid of a ventilator while the other four are “stable,” though he stressed that that does not mean their condition is good.
“The children are barely 24 hours old and no one knows what can come up,” he said.
