Woman gives birth to Costa Rica’s first sextuplets: Four boys and two girls

May 18^th, 2015 (InsideCostaRica.com) Silvia Villegas, 34 of Heredia gave birth last night by caesarean to Costa Rica’s first sextuplets: four boys and two girls, all of which are in stable condition despite having been born prematurely, according to hospital officials.

The first child, a girl, was born at 9:39 p.m.  The surgery involved 21 specialists from five state hospitals.  Despite being born after just six months of gestation, none of the children presented any abnormalities.

The babies weighed in between 2 and 2.5 pounds (900 and 1,100 grams) according to a hospital official, and will require intensive support as their hearts and lungs continue to develop.

The next 72 hours remain crucial for the survival of the children, who will remain under medical observation for at least three months, according to doctors.

Once an extremely rare phenomenon, fertility treatments have made multiple births slightly more common today.  But conceiving sextuplets without the use of fertility treatments is extremely rare – in fact, the odds of giving birth to sextuplets without such treatments are one in 4.7 billion.

It was not disclosed if the woman had been receiving such treatments.

The Rosenkowitz Sextuplets (born 11 January 1974 in South Africa) were the first known set of sextuplets to survive infancy.