BELLFLOWER, Calif. — The nation’s second set of live- born octuplets were all breathing on their own Wednesday, 48 hours after a woman gave birth to the surprising bunch in Southern California.
Two were receiving supplemental oxygen but were inhaling and exhaling on their own.
“They’re doing amazingly well,” said Socorro Serrano, spokeswoman for Kaiser Permanente’s Bellflower Medical Center.
The mother, whose identity remains a secret, had not yet been able to hold any of the delicate babies — six boys and two girls — who were born weighing between 1 pound, 8 ounces and 3 pounds, 4 ounces. She was able to see them in their incubators Tuesday night.
The babies’ incubators were being kept near one another in the same room for bonding, said Miriam Khoury, clinical director of inpatient obstetrical nursing at the hospital.
Four of the babies were receiving tube feedings of donated breast milk, said Khoury.
The stomach of a fifth baby didn’t absorb the milk he was given Wednesday, and he now was being fed intravenously, said Khoury. Two of the babies that were receiving milk also were being fed through a vein.
The mother has begun pumping breast milk in anticipation of eight hungry babies, said Serrano.
