Virginia couple Adeboye and Ajibola Taiwo have been trying to conceive for 17 years. This year, they had sextuplets.
Last year, the two Virginia residents learned that they were finally going to have a child after nearly two decades of battling infertility. It wasn't until January, however, that they learned they were expecting six! The mother gave birth at VCU Medical Center in Richmond on May 11. It took a medical team of 40 doctors and nurses to execute the delivery. The six babies -- three boys and three girls -- are all healthy and weighed between 1 pound 10 ounces and 2 pounds 15 ounces. Ronald Ramus, M.D., the Director of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at VCU Medical Center, issued a press release about the amazing delivery.We’re going through this extraordinary journey together with the family. It’s not every day that parents bring home sextuplets. Mrs. Taiwo was eating, sleeping, and breathing for seven. A lot of the support and encouragement we gave her to make it as far as she did was important and one of the biggest contributions we made as a team.”
The six babies were delivered by C-section early, at 30 weeks gestation. A typical pregnancy lasts 40 weeks. It is unclear whether the couple turned to in vitro fertilization, though the method has been known to increase the odds of multiple births. Giving birth to sextuplets is extremely rare, occurring once in every 4.7 billion births.
“I hope for the smallest of my six children to grow up and say, ‘I was so small, and look at me now,’” expressed Ajibola Taiwo. “I want my kids [to] come back to VCU to study and learn to care for others with the same people who cared for me and my family."
Ajibola was released from the hospital on May 18, a week after the delivery, however, her six babies are still in the NICU. Doctors don't have a timetable for when the children will be released, but until then, Adeboye and Ajibola will be spending their waking hours at the hospital.
