reuters - New York woman gives birth to sextuplets

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York woman gave birth to sextuplets -- four boys and two girls -- earlier this month, the Mount Sinai Medical Center said on Monday.

But Digna and Victor Carpio, who also have a seven-year-old son, kept the birth as secret for three weeks as their babies fought to survive, the New York Daily News reported.

The babies -- identified at the moment as A, B, C, D, E and F -- were born by Caesarean section on October 6 during the 25th week of pregnancy, about three months early, each weighing between 1.5 and 2 pounds (680 and 900 grams), the newspaper reported.

"I've watched each of my babies fight so hard to survive," Carpio, 31, told the Daily News. "Life is beautiful and we're so thankful."

The Daily News reported that the Carpio sextuplets are only the second set born in New York City.

The paper said all six babies have now very good odds of survival. The couple plans to name them before they turn one-month-old.

The hospital confirmed the birth of the sextuplets but gave no further details. Multiple births are often the result of fertility treatment but it was not known whether the parents in this case had undergone such treatment.

nj.com - Report links estrogen levels to joint replacement surgery for women

Women who've had multiple births, are on hormone replacement therapy or underwent early puberty are at significantly higher risk for knee or hip replacement surgery, reports one of the largest studies to look at the relationship between reproductive issues and joint replacement surgery.

The findings, published on-line today ahead of print in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, are based on the experiences of some 1.3 million middle-aged women in the United Kingdom. Researchers at the University of Oxford tracked the women beginning in 1996 for about six years -- from around the age of 50 upwards -- to see if they had a knee or hip replaced due to osteoarthritis, an inflammatory joint disease.

A little more than 12,000 required a hip replacement by the end of the study period and just under 10,000 needed a knee replacement.

After quizzing the women on how when they had their first and last periods, how many children they had and whether they had used oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy (HRT), several patterns emerged.

If a woman started menstruation before the age of 11, her probability of having both hip and knee replacement surgery increased between 9 and 15 percent, the researchers found. Every successive birth increased the risk of a hip replacement by 2 percent and a knee replacement by 8 percent.

While previous use of oral contraceptives did not appear to have an effect, current use of hormone replacement therapy boosted the chances of a hip replacement by 38 percent and of a knee replacement by 58 percent, the study found.

"These findings, along with other evidence, strongly suggest that the female sex hormone, estrogen, plays a role in the development of osteoarthritis of the hip and knee and the subsequent need for joint replacement," lead study author Bette Liu, of the University of Oxford, said in an e-mail to The Star-Ledger.

Estrogen is a female sex hormone that controls the reproductive cycle, and prepares the body for pregnancy.

Liu cautioned that the is evidence is not strong enough to recommend women change their use of HRT. In fact, the study suggests that such "non-biological factors" as women having greater access to health services if they are on hormonal therapy could be a factor in them having joint replacement surgery.

Overall, women have a higher incidence of osteoarthritis, in particular of the knee, when compared to men, the study notes.

timesonline - Best of Times, Worst of Times: Jackie Clune

Jackie Clune, 42, is an actress and stand-up comedian. Three years ago she gave birth to triplets: Frank, Thady and Orla. Here she recalls her shock at learning she was pregnant, and how she coped with their battle to survive

I didn’t ever think I was going to have children. It wasn’t something I yearned for. Then I met Richard and suddenly felt very settled. I had my first child, Saoirse, when I was 37 — a dream baby. Then, 11 months later, I fell pregnant again. Rather casually, I left the first scan until 14 weeks. When they told me there were three, I was absolutely horrified. But then this innate Pollyanna sensibility kicked in and I thought: “It’ll be all right.” I’m not a worrier, which is lucky, because I could have worried myself to death over this. I phoned the Twins and Multiple Birth Association. The first thing the woman said was “Congratulations, you’re a very special lady,” which appealed to the diva in me enormously.

I tottered into my appointment with a foetal medicine expert saying: “I’m having triplets! I’m special!” He then explained all the risks: placental failure, miscarriage, chromosomal abnormality, early labour and the possibility of them not surviving their first few weeks of life. After that I didn’t feel special any more: I felt like a cat producing a litter.

It took months to get my head around it. We didn’t have any money. We’d just bought a big house in north London and didn’t know how we were going to pay the mortgage. I was doing bits of stand-up, but our income was pretty low. By 20 weeks I looked full-term. By week 30 I was hiring mobility scooters at Asda.

I couldn’t get upstairs, couldn’t sit, couldn’t stand, couldn’t sleep. It was just atrocious. I begged to be delivered at 31 weeks because I couldn’t breathe.

I felt as though I had a family of labradors sitting on my chest, and it was scaring me. By the time I delivered at 35 weeks, my stomach measured 55 inches and I’d lost my sense of humour completely.

There were 20 people in the operating theatre for my caesarean. Boy number one, Frank, was whisked past me to the Nicu [neonatal intensive care unit]. Then his identical twin, Thady, disappeared. Their sister, Orla, the smallest, was fine, but by 10 o’clock that evening, 12 hours later, I still hadn’t seen the boys. I’d been told a day in the womb is equal to a week in an incubator, but it hadn’t hit me what that actually meant.

Finally, a paediatrician said the boys’ lungs were very immature and they’d both been intubated. When I eventually saw them they had wires everywhere and huge tubes stuck down their gullets. At first we were told they’d be there for a few hours, which turned into weeks. The doctors tried to take them off their respirators, but they couldn’t cope. It was days before I even touched them.

I’d shuffle round to deliver expressed breast milk, and when I came back Orla would be lying silently in the dark, which made me cry. It was as if she’d got used to the idea that she had to share me.

After a couple of weeks the boys’ nasal tubes were taken out for a few minutes to let me breast-feed. Then, one day when I’d just fed Thady, I turned round to pick up Frank and I heard a nurse behind me say: “Call a doctor!”

In those seconds Thady had stopped breathing and was changing colour from pink to blue. He was rushed away and I watched as if it were an episode of ER.

It felt like an out-of-body experience.

I’d felt guilty I hadn’t bonded with the boys, but in that instant I was so upset and shocked and shaken, the floodgates of maternal love opened. The Nicu was a place of extraordinary emotional extremes. One night, a mum lost a baby. I was awake and heard her screaming, and In the morning the cot next to Frank’s was empty. The other extreme was the baby born on Christmas Day weighing under 500 grams. He’d been there five months and I never once saw anyone visit. A nurse said: “Sometimes the mothers never come back.”

When I brought them home, people said: “How will you manage three newborns and a toddler?” But having a five-year-old and three three-year-olds is much harder. I’ve also done a few big runs: Mamma Mia! when they were seven months old, and now Billy Elliot, and I’m pathologically tired. The boys battle constantly. It can’t be easy having a brother who looks just like you and who has the toy you want. I’ve tried to be a bit existential about it, but you still want to brain them. When I was pregnant they were all crunched together, nose to cheek, elbows sticking in each other’s bums, and they’re still like that — they move in a huddle, battling like mad. Thady is the most difficult. He screams and cries and throws himself on the floor and it’s hard not to get wound up — he really does push you over the edge. But somehow I’m able to take a step back, because everything that happened informs my relationship with him. I remember the day I saw him nearly die and something in me goes: “It’s okay. He’s having a tantrum, but he’s here.”

Jackie Clune is now appearing as Mrs Wilkinson in Billy Elliot: The Musical at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London

bbc - Sextuplets born in Berlin clinic

The first German sextuplets for 20 years have been born in a clinic in the capital Berlin and are said to be in a stable condition.

Independent specialists said that the four girls and two boys, who each weigh between 800 and 900 grams (1.8-2lb), had a good chance of survival.

The first confirmed case of sextuplets surviving past infancy was recorded in Cape Town in South Africa in 1974.

They remain rare, occurring in about one out of 4.5m pregnancies.

Correspondents say multiple births have become more common with the advent of hormone therapies and in vitro fertilisation.

The babies were born prematurely at 27 weeks in Berlin's Charite clinic on Thursday, the clinic said on Monday.

The names of the parents were not being released immediately.

peterboroughtoday - Special day for city's three tiny miracles

THREE tiny miracles who made the headlines because of their 200 million to one odds were christened in a city church yesterday.

Identical triplets Gabriella, Olivia and Alessia were baptised on Sunday afternoon at St Peter and All Souls’ Church.

Proud mum and dad Carmela Testa (23) and fiance Richard Rees (23) were joined by dozens of their family and friends for the service in the Geneva Street Catholic church.

The triplets were born in Peterborough District Hospital on January 9 this year, seven weeks premature and weighed between 3lb 4 and 3lb 10oz at birth. After yesterday’s service, the parents, from Walkers Way, Bretton, spoke of the joy the three girls had brought them.

Carmela, a midwife at Peterborough District Hospital, said: “It has been a very hectic year. But we come from an extended family and our parents and other relatives have been a great support to us.”

And Richard, a vocational coach, admitted the three were “a real handful, but very enjoyable”.

He said: “Getting them all outside the house has been a bit of a challenge, and getting them to settle at night can be tough, but it has been an amazing nine months.”

Father David Jennings, who conducted the service, said: “This is a unique celebration for the parish. Identical triplets are a first for me, and I think for the parish and the city as well.”

Giving birth to naturally-conceived identical triplets is so rare, some experts have said it might happen in just one in 200 million cases.

The triplets caught the public’s imagination after The Evening Telegraph reported their birth in April, and they were featured in national newspapers and TV news reports.

telegraph - EU to offer 18 weeks fully paid maternity leave

The plan, to be announced by the EU's social affairs commissioner Vladimir Spidla, will impose six weeks of compulsory leave for new mothers after the birth, with the remaining 12 weeks to be split either before or after the child is born.

Under existing laws, introduced in 1992, the EU enforces a minimum of 14 weeks of fully paid leave.

Brussels sets the minimum length of maternity leave and pay, but member states may offer more generous provisions beyond this level.

Maternity leave periods range from 14 weeks in Germany and 16 weeks in France, the Netherlands and Spain, to 45 weeks in Bulgaria.

Sweden is particularly generous, offering a year of parental leave at full pay, which can be transferred to the father.

The UK also offers 52 weeks of maternity leave, 39 of which are paid, but at a rate of 90 per cent of their average pay for six weeks and a fixed sum of £117.18 a week for the other 33 weeks.

The government has broadly welcomed the commission's desire to increase the length of maternity leave.

But it is concerned that if accompanied by an increase in pay, the UK might be forced to reduce its allowable period of maternity leave.

An official with the British mission to the EU told The Daily Telegraph: "It would have a huge cost to the public purse, and we don't want to be weighing up the length of time mothers take off against what they are paid."

The Conservative Party has attacked the proposals as "ill-judged" and wants them reconsidered.

"Decisions regarding maternity leave and maternity pay should be made by national governments, not the EU," said Philip Bushill-Matthews MEP, the Conservative leader and employment spokesman in the European parliament. "It is not for Brussels to tell British mothers and fathers how much leave they should take.

"Small businesses will struggle to afford this extra cost. Ultimately some of the smallest businesses may think twice about employing young women through fear of them going on maternity leave."

Following Ireland's vote against the EU's Lisbon Treaty, some Brussels officials are eager to enthuse people with a series of more generous, socially oriented proposals.

The plan, which must yet be approved by EU member states and the European Parliament, would force employers to offer additional leave in the case of premature childbirth, when an infant that is hospitalised at birth or in the event of multiple births.

Mothers would also win the right to return to the same job or a similar one but with the same terms and conditions.

Employers would find it harder to fire mothers within six months of the end of the maternity leave. If dismissed within this period, they could ask for a written explanation.