Identical Sextuplets
Sextuplets are rare – at that time, there were only two known sets in the world – and it was obvious that the obstetrics team were in uncharted waters.
The odds of having sextuplets are extremely low, with one occurring in every 4.5 million pregnancies. But many end in miscarriages and, even if the babies defy the odds, the mortality rate is high.
Canada’s first sextuplets (born January 6–7, 2007 in Vancouver) were born at 25 weeks gestation. Two of them died shortly after birth. The Carpio sextuplets (born October 6, 2008, in the New York City borough of Queens) are the first Hispanic sextuplets to be born in America. It is not known if their parents, Victor and Digna Carpio, conceived using fertility treatments.
A multiple birth is the culmination of one multiple pregnancy, wherein the mother delivers two or more offspring. A term most applicable to placental species, multiple births occur in most kinds of mammals, with varying frequencies.
Sextuplets The Dilley sextuplets were the first surviving sextuplets in the United States. The family and their medical team were prepared for quintuplets after an ultrasound detected five heartbeats.
Sextuplets World Sextuplets 3 identical – 1998 – Hong (China, December 23 1998) 3 mans identical, 1 man fraternal, 2 teens fraternal. 4 survive. 2 identical – 1998 – Lacasale (New Jersey, October 20 1998) 2 identical babies were lost in utero, unsure of sex.
Are There Identical Quintuplets? Identical quintuplets are possible, though the closest possibly identical quints were born in Poland in 2008, according to About.com. The only known identical quintuplets prior to that were the Dionne teens, who were born in Ontario, Canada in 1934.
How can the answer be improved?
The identical Carlson Septuplets have been in the spotlight since they were born. How do they handle the world’s curiosity about their miraculous birth and unusual lives? You can find out by reading their stories, scrapbook and more through the links above.
Before the Carlson septuplets, the largest group of identical babies in medical history was five. These were the Dionne quintuplets, born in Ontario, Canada in 1934. Just as the Carlsons are the world’s first septuplets, the Dionnes were the world’s first quintuplets.