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Couple have six kids at once after trying to get pregnant for 17 years

The babies were delivered by cesarean section to parents who had tried to conceive for 17 years.

A Virginia hospital said it has successfully delivered the couple’s sextuplets and they are all in good condition.

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In a statement announcing the births, VCU Medical Center in Richmond said they were the first sextuplets delivered at the hospital.

The babies were delivered by cesarean section on May 11 to parents who had tried to conceive for 17 years.

The statement said a 40-person team was involved and the delivery required hours of planning.

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The babies ranged from 1 pound, 10 ounces (737g), to 2 pounds, 15 ounces (1.3kg).

The couple were informed in January that they were expecting six children.

“I was excited,” said father Adeboye Taiwo.

“For the very first time we were expecting.”

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According to the VCU Medical Centre, the delivery team included: “experts from maternal-fetal medicine, labour and delivery, nursing, anaesthesia, respiratory, neonatal medicine, social work, nutrition, cardiology and chaplain services.”

“A typical labour and delivery shift includes one, perhaps two premature births, usually with time in between. We had to co-ordinate with our colleagues in the NICU for six premature babies to be delivered simultaneously,” said Dr Susan Lanni from VCU Medical Center.

Mrs Taiwo was 30 weeks and two days pregnant when she gave birth.

“It’s not every day that parents bring home sextuplets. Mrs. Taiwo was eating, sleeping and breathing for seven,” Dr Ronald Ramus from VCU Medical Center said.

The couple were told ‘kangaroo care’ would help the babies adjust to life outside the womb.

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‘Kangaroo care’ also known as ‘skin-to skin’ is when the baby is held against the bare chest of a parent.

This practice helps to maintain a regular temperature for the newborn, and the start of breastfeeding. It also facilitates the transition to life outside the womb.

Mrs Taiwo was discharged from the hospital on May 18.

She said: “I hope for the smallest of my six children to grow up and say ‘I was so small, and look at me now,’”.

Sextuplets are quite rare.

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The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that of the nearly 4 million live births in the U.S. in 2015, only 24 were quintuplets or other higher-order births.

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