Minneapolis, Minn., Jun 12, 2007 / 07:24 am
For the first time in recorded history, a Minnesota couple has given birth to sextuplets. Although they were counseled by doctors to abort all but two of the children, Ryan and Brianna knew it wasn’t even an option.
The new parents had been trying for a year to conceive a child, but were unable to do so naturally. “We spent over a year praying and trying on our own. Eventually we came under the care of a clinic that had succeeded in helping some of our close friends conceive.”
The first attempt at using a fertility drug produced no results, but the second drug, Follistim, resulted in Brianna producing two or three eggs. “There was a 25% chance of us having twins, a 3 % chance of us having triplets and anything else was laughable.”
Originally, the thought that Brianna might be carrying six children wasn’t even a possibility. According to Dr. Helain Landy of Georgetown University Hospital's Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, the chances of spontaneously conceiving sextuplets is one in 4.7 billion, although the odds improve significantly with fertility treatment.