First British sextuplets born in 26 years

Dr Clifford Mayes, who helped to deliver the babies, said of the operation, “We have planned very carefully for today and it went as well as we had hoped it would. The care of the babies would be the care we would normally expect for any baby.”

The feat is indeed extraordinary. The new born babies, delivered by a team of 30 medics, weighed between 1lb 7oz and 2lb 2oz and are said to be in intensive care. The babies are doing well in spite of being born 14 weeks early.

The mother is also reportedly doing fine. The unusual conception was natural, without the use of IVF, another first in the U.K.

Record equaled
Sextuplets are born in one out of around 4.5 million pregnancies. Believed to be the first instance in Northern Ireland, the delivery of the sextuplets equals a 26-year-old British record. Prior to this, six girls were born to the Walton family in Liverpool in 1983.

Happy and tough time
Referring to the fact that a lot of effort would go into raising the children, the neonatal consultant, Dr Clifford, noted that the birth of the sextuplets is “both a happy time and a potentially difficult time” for the family.

Lead midwife in the operation, Patricia Denvir, while expressing happiness over the success of the operation, said that the surgery was “very stressful situation both for our staff and also for the parents, but it's a situation that went very well."

She added, "Both parents were very composed and they dealt with it very well. It's a very emotional time." The parents, Nuala Conway and Austin, are both in their 20’s.

This piece of advice from Graham Walton, 58, the father of Liverpool sextuplets, would stand the proud Belfast parents in good stead, “The new parents will have to be organised. My wife is so very organised, we had to be, changing nappies, feeding, sleeping, at all hours of the day and night. There was so much do and think about and there was never enough time. But all you can do is keep smiling and enjoy every minute of it.”