Arizona sextuplets' mom stable after heart failure

[krispos42]

Source: CNN.com

PHOENIX, Arizona (AP) -- The mother of one of two sets of sextuplets born within 10 hours of each other suffered acute heart failure shortly after the delivery but was stable Tuesday, doctors said.

The heart problems were due to the huge volume of blood that Jenny Masche, 32, was carrying in her body while pregnant, Dr. John Elliott said at a news conference at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center. When the babies were delivered Monday, some of the extra blood was lost and "stretched her heart and blood vessels to a very, very critical level," Elliott said.

"So for a while she was very sick."

The babies, three girls and three boys, are in stable condition. Five had been put on ventilators after birth, but now all but one are breathing on their own, doctors said.

<more>

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/06/13/sextuplet.mom.ap/index.html

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Ten hours after another woman in Minnesota gave birth to sextuplets as well! Holy cow, I can't even imagine doing that!

At least they're done having kids, though...

[enid602]

1. bill

She'll have another when she sees the bill.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Bet both are the result of fertility drugs. Women and their bodies were not designed to have

'litters'.

[hippiechick]

3. I just find something inherently wrong with these scenarios ...

... horribly horribly bad for womens' health to be a brood mare, trying to carry an entire litter at once. :(

[BrklynLiberal]

19. I agree with you 100%. I do not see this kind of thing as something to celebrate.

Everyone involved, including the members of the "litter" suffer in some way.
I have yet to hear about one of these ridiculous multiple births where all the children are actually healthy. This puts an incredible burden on everyone...the children, the family and the society around them.
I am sure that not one of those families can actually afford to raise the six children for which they are now responsible.
Everything should be done to encourage people to adopt, and give some wonderful child a loving home, rather than give birth to litters like that.

[TwilightGardener]

4. If this isn't evidence that women weren't supposed to bear litters

like golden retrievers, I don't know what is. Assuming this is the work of a fertility clinic implanting multiple embryos hoping that at least one takes hold, that is. Glad she's doing well, though--can't imagine much of anything sadder than going through all of that discomfort and hardship only to lose mom and leave dad with six babies.

[StarryNite]

5. I'm glad to hear

she is doing better. I hope all the little ones make it too. I'm just damn glad I had my kids one at a time. And that I stopped at two. But I love babies. :loveya:

[Mz Pip]

6. Not just bad for the mom

The kids usually have serious health problems. I remember seeing a segment on that family that had 7. At 18 months a couple of them were still being fed through a tube into the stomach, most still couldn't walk and who knows what mental developmental disabilities they would be facing. The idiot woman went on fertility treatments when her first child was only a year and a half old.

I find the whole thing really creepy.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[janetblond]

7. Fertility Drugs

Some couples are so desperate to have children, they will do anything, including ... risk the mother's life, thinking "it'll be okay" because other people have done it.
Now the dead woman's husband has SIX babies he'll have to bring up alone.
I bet HE'S got post-partem depression.

[nodehopper]

14. she is not dead

[roguevalley]

10. cerebral palsy is common due to brain bleeds and can lead to

developmental problems and blindness among other things. May God protect and help them all. I love babies too. :)

[BrklynLiberal]

20. I agree...as I said in my post upthread.

[Inkyfuzzbottom]

8. Listen to Mother Nature...

When you are unable to conceive it's her way of saying don't go there. I just don't get all these people that go to these ridiculous lengths just to breed. Ever heard of a wonderful thing called adoption? Yes, adoption can be expensive but it's no more expensive than the ridiculous fertility treatments these people go through. If you MUST have a baby, adopt one! If you LOVE babies so much, why must it be your biological child? A baby is a baby once it's put in your arms. This breeding litters is just perverse to me.

[Critters2]

16. Agreed. I was unable to conceive, and accepted it

Sadly, but came to believe that was the hand I'd been dealt. I'm still looking into adopting, and in the meantime I'm a godmother to a beautiful little girl, and sponsor a child in Mexico whom I hope to meet one day. It is possible to love children not sprung from one's own loins. These people risk their health for their egos.

[DemBones DemBones]

23. You were wise, I think. Fertility treatments are a big strain on

women's health and multiple pregnancies usually result in premature deliveries, with low birth weights, and all too often lasting health problems for some of the children.

Until fertility drugs, only quintuplets had been recorded and I think there were only two cases. The French Canadian Dionne quintuplets were famous (and exploited to make money) in the Thirties, and an American woman had quints in the early Sixties, I think. I think both mothers were "older," which increases the possibility of multiple births. (Of course "older" mothers can now be in their sixties, which I think is insane. Younger parents have more energy and patience for dealing with children.

[The Wielding Truth]

24. It is instinctual to want to procreate. Why do we couple?

Why do we form lasting relationships? We are hard wired to desire a continuation of our genetic code.

It is also what blinds the RW when it comes to sharing and respecting all races and religions.

Reptilian desires. Basic lust for simplistic selfishness. It's how we made it through. It's how we survived as a species.

We are reaching as era where respect and sharing must work or we will destroy ourselves and our environment.

We can better ourselves, but it involves rising to a higher level of conciseness.It would mean thinking and planning for the future of others who are not in our immediate family. Can we do it?

[Mend]

9. the original method was to implant 6 and ablate 4...but some women are

refusing to have the "extras" destroyed, to the detriment of all. Doctors are going to stop implanting so many and then the odds of pregnancy will go down. People who use this technology should play by the rules of good science. We were not made to carry 6 fetuses at one time.

[SarahB]

11. A dead woman and six special needs children.

Selective reduction or natural conception IMHO should happen in cases like these. This stuff kills women and damages children for life.

[DemBones DemBones]

18. I don't support war, the death penalty, abortion, or euthanasia.

I think, therefore I am pro-life.

[superconnected]

12. Okay, got the number of kids. Is this woman dead now?

In the link she is alive but I'm guessing it's old.

[Mend]

13. no, she is alive, but maybe her heart will never be the same again....it

happens to athletes after they retire. You stretch it out, it doesn't return to normal size and stays floppy and is weaker. This is possible...a woman raising 6 kids with a weakened heart.

[rebecca_herman]

15. Pretty sad

I hope this woman is able to make a recovery, I wonder though how she will manage to chase after 6 toddlers a year from now though if her health has been permanently damaged. I think doctors really need to be more responsible about these sorts of things. They didn't implant embryos, they used drugs to stimulate ovulation and then artificially inseminated the woman with her husband's sperm. The doctors were irresponsible by not monitoring the woman and cancelling the insemination since she had too many follicles, since it was known the couple were morally opposed to a reduction. I see nothing wrong with fertility treatments but people have to use them responsibly. In the case of the other sextuplets born in Minnesota they were born a day short of 23 weeks. It is unlikely any of them will survive. I feel bad for such little creatures hooked up to machines and poked and prodded with pretty much no chance of survival... I hope they are too young to feel much of anything...

But I don't really get the whole "if you can't get pregnant naturally nature didn't mean it to happen" thing. The same could be said for any medical treatment and people have elective medical treatments every day. I don't see how using elective medical treatments to have children is wrong as long as the doctors and the couple are responsible with preventing high-order multiples, anymore than any other elective medical treatments are immoral and going against nature..

[Critters2]

17. But that's the point--neither these parents nor these doctors

were responsible. And this woman nearly died because of it. There are plenty of children in need of homes. Why not adopt?

[rebecca_herman]

21. These procedures *can* be done responsibly, however

I think it's an individual choice. People with fertility treatments can choose to have elective medical procedures to get pregnant, they can adopt, or they can choose to remain childless. Just because these particular people were irresponsible doesn't mean those that are responsible should be condemned along with them. There are many babies born from fertility treatments and although the twin/triplet rate is higher then in natural conceptions the vast majority of these babies are single births.

In addition some fertility treatments are cheaper than adoption, or may be covered by insurance, are therefore may be a more accesible or realistic option for certain couples. While some women may want the experience of pregnancy or to have a biological child, there are certainly financial considerations for why a particular couple goes with fertility treatments over adoption.

Because some people are irresponsible drivers should no one drive? Because some people are irresponsible parents should no one be a parent? Therefore I don't see the argument where some people being irresponsible with fertility treatments means these procedures are automatically "bad."

I just don't see it as my business whether an infertile couple chooses to adopt or pursue treatments. Only they know the reasons why they made the decision and as long as they are responsible with whatever route they choose I do not see the problem.

[Critters2]

22. We'll have to agree to disagree

I think mature people can accept that sometimes they won't get what they want. Not everyone gets to be a parent.

[Shallah Kali]

25. Sort of OT semi-rant - why is it OK to have umpteen kids you can't support via medical science

and maybe end up on state aid and shop around for donations of everything from truck loads of diapers to a mini van (example http://www.maschemiracles.com/donations.htm ) but those who have umpteen kids (or even one) they can't afford the old fashioned way are bad? I am not saying anyone here is like that nor am I criticisng this family for doing this. I am talking in general like those rightwingers who rant against welfare queens and their leach like offspring. I can't recall ever hearing a peep of protest from those people when families like this one has more than they can afford. And why are these babies miracles from God but babies born in the biblical way instead called Drains on Society? with this like so many other things I don't understand the cognitive dissonance. i just don't comprehend why one group is respectable and the other is not.

I need a head exploding icon here.

[Ilsa]

26. The septuplets father runs around giving speeches for big bucks

to support his brood. They also got alot of handouts, a new house, multiple washing machines and dryers, free, the list went on and on. They are lucky their community was willing to help them the way they have. I heard that the couple in Houston that gae birth to eight babies, and then one of them died, didn't get any where near as much assistance or attention. Of course, they were African American, IIRC, so they weren't as "telegenic" as the fundie McCaulley family.

[Shallah Kali]

28. this is the disconnect that bothers me. Heaven forbid the poor get some food stamps

and school lunch but let's lavish gifts on families like those as long as they are the right color and religion. BTW the Masche babies have been given collage scholarships: http://www.kingmandailyminer.com/main.asp?SectionID=13&SubSectionID=18&ArticleID=12343 I wonder if they ever considered offering the same to other families with 6 or more kids.

[WindRavenX]

27. Damn, well said Shallah

And why are these babies miracles from God but babies born in the biblical way instead called Drains on Society?

Excellent question indeed.

[sinkingfeeling]

29. Excellent questions, You need to ask the people who see these extra-multiple births

as 'miracles' and good advertising vehicles.

[Generator]

31. Because this is America

and "we" admire things done big big big. Big million airs-like Trump, and Gates, Buffet, Oprah, oh add your favorite billionarie..we like BIG houses-damn it-the street of dreams annual house show off here in suburban Oregon has a 6000 square foot house. (Who the f lives like THAT? AND WHY?) How about biggest serial killer ever? (wasn't that the V Tech's claim to fame) The biggest blockbuster movie opening weekend? It's all about the NUMBERS.

OH YES, we admire MONSTER TRUCKS, billionaires, MASS murderers, big numbers. The woman that can pop out ten kids would be the most lauded AMERICAN ever. ( I know we have the worst president ever..but the numbers are not big)

[fortyfeetunder]

30. Does this couple dare file a malpractice lawsuit?

I hope their fertility doctor has the tangible evidence recommending selective reduction to the couple and the couple refused the recommendation.

[LeftishBrit]

32. I'm not against fertility treatment; but sextuplets should not and need not happen

In the UK, doctors will not use more than two, or in the case of mothers over 40, three embryos at one time. Even though this increases the risk that no embryo will implant, it prevents the very high-order multiple births, where often some of the babies don't survive.

From the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority website:

'Why is there so much concern about having twins or triplets after fertility treatment?
Having a multiple birth (twins, triplets or more) is the single greatest health risk associated with fertility treatment. This is why the HFEA has imposed restrictions on the number of embryos that can be transferred in IVF to a maximum of two for women under the age of 40 and a maximum of three for women aged 40 or over who are using their own eggs (if you are using donated eggs, the maximum is two). Multiple births carry risks to both the health of the mother and to the health of the unborn babies. Twins or triplets are more likely to be premature and to have a below-normal birth weight. Studies show that the risk of death before birth, or within the first week of life, is more than four times greater for twins than for a single baby. For triplets, the risk is seven times greater than for a single baby. For more information, see our fact sheet Multiple Births and Pregnancies: considering the risks.'


I do hope that the mother and the babies will be OK.