HOUSTON -- While doctors guard the fragile health of the world's first surviving set of octuplets, the births have rekindled the medical community's debate over the use of fertility drugs.
The babies born to Nkem Chukwu (nih-KEHM chuhk-WOO) were "a disaster" from an infertility standpoint, said Dr. Randle Corfman, director of the Midwest Center for Reproductive Health in Robbinsdale, Minn.Corfman worried that insurance companies may reconsider providing health coverage for women like Chukwu who have fertility treatment. Others question whether parents who take fertility drugs really understand the health risks of underdeveloped multiple births.
"The fact is that the vast majority of these cases (of quadruplets or more) end in disaster, sometimes for the mom, most often for the babies," Dr. Alan Copperman told the New York Times.
Copperman, director of reproductive endocrinology at Mount Sinai-New York University Medical Center, said every time a case like the Chukwus' comes along, desperate couples become more willing to take greater risks.
A Saudi woman gave birth to three girls and four boys in January, and the McCaughey septuplets were born in Iowa 13 months ago. All of those babies have survived.
By the time Chukwu's eight tiny children are well enough to be taken home, an estimated $2 million will have been spent on their care, about $250,000 a child, predicted Dr. Leonard Weisman, chief neonatologist at Texas Children's Hospital.
Doctors said the infants, who have not yet been named, could be in the hospital for up to two months, while their mother may be released within a week.
The six girls and two boys remained in critical but stable condition today at Texas Children's. The hospital's Web site described the mother as "alert, happy and excited" and said the babies had an uneventful night.
Seven of the eight weighed between 1 pound and 1 pound 11 ounces at birth. Doctors say that, in general, such babies have an 85 percent chance of survival.