A Virginia couple who tried to conceive for almost two decades could have welcomed six children over the course of time, but instead, they were gifted with them all at once.
On May 11, Ajibola Taiwo gave birth to the first sextuplets ever to be delivered at the VCU Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia, the hospital said in a press release.
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Taiwo, a native of Western Nigeria, had been trying to become a mother for more than 17 years, the hospital said.
The couple was “overjoyed” when they saw four heartbeats at their first ultrasound in November. In January, they learned that they were in fact having six children.
“I was excited,” said Taiwo’s husband, Adeboye Taiwo. “For the very first time we were expecting.”
Taiwo was 30 weeks and two days pregnant when she gave birth to three boys and three girls by cesarean section with the assistance of a 40-person labor and delivery team, according to the hospital.
The babies ranged in weight from 1 pound, 10 ounces, to 2 pounds, 15 ounces. They are all doing well and are currently at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU neonatal intensive care unit.
“I hope for the smallest of my six children to grow up and say ‘I was so small, and look at me now,’” https://t.co/jLWUphrvEr
— VCU (@VCU) May 25, 2017
“I hope for the smallest of my six children to grow up and say ‘I was so small, and look at me now,’” Taiwo said. “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.”
Sextuplets are extremely rare. Out of the 4 million live births in the U.S. in 2015, only 24 were quintuplets or higher-order births, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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(H/T: The Associated Press)
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