A woman gave birth to sextuplets, four boys and two girls, all born in stable condition, in the first birth of its kind in Costa Rica, health authorities reported Monday.
The mother, 34 year-old Silvia Villegas, gave birth via cesarean section after 28 weeks gestation Sunday evening in Hospital México, northwest of the capital, San José.
The sextuplet’s father, Juan Francisco González, and doctors who participated in the birth confirmed that both the mother and the babies are in good condition, even though they required specialized attention because they were born premature and underweight.
“I’m very happy with the surprise that the six [babies] arrived better than we expected,” González said during a press conference with doctors.
He said the children’s names, by order of birth, are Emma, Tomás, Valentina, Diego, Andréas and Gabriel.
The hospital’s chief gynecologist, Sandra Vargas, said that the infants continued to receive assisted breathing with the exception of Emma, the first born.
The birth required a team of 21 medical specialists, including neonatologists, pediatrics and gynecologists, to care for each baby.
Dr. Olga Argedas, director of the National Children’s Hospital, said the babies were born with weights between 900 and 1,100 grams and did not appear to have any disorders or deformities, and only required attention for their premature condition.
Three of the six babies remained at Hospital México, while the other three were taken to other hospitals in the capital. No medical facility had the capacity to attend to so many premature babies, forcing them to be temporarily separated.
The birth of the sextuplets followed a series of multiple births that had the country’s health system on alert. Last week, a woman gave birth to quadruplets and another was still waiting to give birth to her four babies in the coming weeks, according to the Costa Rican Social Security System.
Last February, there was another case of sextuplets in the Dominican Republic.
