Jan 31, 2009 1:21 pm US/Central
The Science Behind Giving Birth To Octuplets
LOS ANGELES (CBS) ―
A woman giving birth to eight babies is an outstanding event. How could it happen? And, are there ethical issues involved?
Must hormone treatments be involved in the birth of octuplets? We don't know for sure what happened here, but many doctors have ideas. Plus, can a doctor stop this from happening in the first place?
It's been called the miracle of childbirth, so doctors say, eight miracles delivered just days ago – octuplets. But, how did it happen?
Dr. Michael Vermesh, an infertility specialist tells CBS station KCBS-TV in Los Angeles, "either hormones and natural sex or hormones and artificial insemination. I would doubt that this was in vitro because with in vitro fertilization, we can decide on how many embryos to place in the uterus and I don't know many people who would place eight embryos in a uterus."
Vermesh, who did not treat the mother of the octuplets, said when a woman begins on hormones, doctors must monitor the amount that's given and during the cycle of treatment. He can stop high-risk multiple pregnancy from happening before eggs are ever fertilized.
Vermesh said, "a cycle is not simply where I tell them where to take hormones and send them home. The couple comes back to the office in regular intervals to do ultrasounds and blood tests. I know at any given time how many eggs are there, how many are about to ovulate, when the ovulation will take place, so at any given time in the cycle I can stop it."
If a high-risk multiple pregnancy occurs despite his best efforts, he talks to the mother or couple about selective reduction – essentially reducing the number of embryos – explaining the risk to both mother and her babies if she has all the children more than twins.
"Theoretically, the woman can die, the likelihood of one or more of the babies dying is very high as well" Vermesh said.
Still, he said, as a doctor he can't tell his patient what to do.
"We don't have that legal or ethical right to do that," according to Vermesh.
Doctor Vermesh added that all his patients are screened before they go through fertility treatments; that's standard practice. But even if he tries to stop a woman from going through with a high-risk multiple pregnancy, he can't demand it. But what was really interesting is just learning that if a woman for some reason starts taking hormone treatments and for some reason, just has too many eggs in her system, a doctor can stop that right away. You can decide to stop that before you have such a high-risk multiple pregnancy.
Watch the story in the video player to find out more.
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