A Salt Lake City, Utah mother gave birth to a healthy set of quintuplets over the weekend with the help of a team of eight doctors, one anesthesiologist and dozens of nurses, CTV News reports.
The quintuplets' new parents, Guillermina and Fernando Garcia, welcomed into the world three girls and two boys, each tiny newborn weighing between 2 and 3 pounds. The newborns are expected to remain at the University of Utah hospital in Salt Lake City for six weeks in the intensive care unit, and doctors predict they will grow up to be very healthy. They are the first set of quintuplets ever born to the hospital.
Guillermina Garcia, 34, only carried her four babies for 31 1/2 weeks, which is seven weeks shorter than the average single-birth pregnancy, but three weeks longer still than most quintuplet mothers.
"They are all doing remarkably well," Dr. Elizabeth O'Brien of the newborn intensive care unit said to CTV.
Less than 10 sets of quintuplets are born each year in the U.S., and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention totalled 37 babies who were born as part of a set of five or more in 2010.
"We feel like we're dreaming," said Fernando Garcia in Spanish at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon. "It's incredible that we have five."
The Garcias used fertility drugs to get pregnant, which increases the odds of a woman having multiple births. Early in the pregnancy, the couple found out that they were having quintuplets, and Guillermina Garcia had been on bed rest in the hospital since April.
All five of the babies were born by cesarean section, coming out of their mother within two minutes. The baby's names are Esmeralda, Fatima, Marissa, Fernando and Jordan.
"I was excited to see them and see that they were OK, that everything turned out normally," the mother said in Spanish.
The largest of the babies was Fernando, who weighed just 3 pounds, 14 ounces, and the two other baby boys are still using breathing tubes while their sisters are now breathing on their own.
Dr. Tracy Manuck, who served as Garcia's doctor at the hospital, said the mother was an "extraordinary person who never complained, despite suffering from high blood pressure and other medical problems during the pregnancy." Doctors also complimented Garcia's husband on his support throughout the pregnancy and in the operating room on Sunday.
The couple, who originally hail from Guanajuato, Mexico, also have a 1-year old girl, Julietta. They said that they have family in the area who will help them with the ensuing work in taking care of five newborns, and Fernando Garcia's bosses at a local factory told him to take as much time off from work as a welder as he needs.
The Utah Doula Association has also set up an account where people can donate money to help the family with the cost of raising five babies in addition to their 1-year old.
"I don't know," Guillermina Garcia said with a shrug when asked how she plans to care for all five new babies.
"Now that they're here, we'll find a way," her husband said said. "We're through the hardest part."
