From Beyoncé to Shamari Devoe, it may seem like everyone is giving birth to multiples, but Adeboye Taiwo and his wife Ajibola Taiwo may be giving these celebs some serious competition. The couple recently gave birth to sextuplets –three girls and three boys—after trying for seventeen years.
News affiliate WCTR reports VCU Medical Center assisted in bringing the babies into the world on the morning of May 11. Ajibola Taiwo was 30 weeks pregnant when the sextuplets were delivered via c-section by a 40-person medical team. The babies ranged in weight from 1 pound, 10 ounces to 2 pounds, 15 ounces. Although Taiwo was discharged from the hospital on May 18, all six babies continue to do well and thrive in the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU neonatal intensive care unit.
The Taiwo family initially thought they would only be having four babies after seeing two pairs of heartbeats on an ultrasound in November, but VCU confirmed in early January that Ajibola was actually carrying six babies. A shock? Probably. Overwhelming? Maybe. But Adeboye says he was just happy to finally see his family growing after so many unsuccessful previous attempts at conception:
“I was excited. For the very first time we were expecting.”
The Taiwo family’s situation is indeed rare. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports in 2015 there were nearly 4 million live births in the United States, only 24 of which were quintuplets or other higher order births.
The newest members of the Taiwo family are the first set of sextuplets to be born at the Virginia hospital and the team of medical providers made sure that a well-prepared plan was in place for the family. Susan Lanni, M.D., medical director of labor and delivery and maternal-fetal specialist at VCU Medical Center shared details of what these special births required:
“The team quickly assembled to begin prenatal management and delivery planning including pre-delivery drills and resuscitation exercises.”
“A typical labor and delivery shift includes one, perhaps two premature births, usually with time in between. We had to coordinate with our colleagues in the NICU for six premature babies to be delivered simultaneously.”
Adeboye Taiwo, a native of Western Nigeria, expressed that the efforts of the VCU team didn’t go unnoticed:
“The medical team is excellent in medicine and hospitality. We are far from home but the medical team is our family. That is what got us this far.”
Mother, Ajibola also shared that the family will continue to have a strong relation with the team at VCU Medical Center for a very long time:
“I hope for the smallest of my six children to grow up and say ‘I was so small, and look at me now’. 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.”
Whew! All that waiting, all those little babies sharing a womb, all that love and commitment between medical providers and this very special family make a truly incredible birth story. We can’t wait to see the Taiwo family in a few years to see how they’re making out.
The post Worth The Wait: Couple Has Sextuplets After Trying For 17 Years appeared first on MadameNoire.