It's a girl, boy, girl, boy, girl

Their swollen mom had laid six weeks in an Omaha hospital bed, and the five would wait no longer.
Two boys and three girls — Nebraska's second set of quintuplets — were born prematurely Sunday at Bergan Mercy Medical Center. Each weighed roughly two pounds.

Confirming the multiple births Wednesday, Dr. Michael Barsoom said that the quints he delivered were doing “very well.”

“Everything is as good as can be expected,” said Barsoom, Alegent Health's director of maternal fetal medicine.

The parents don't want names or personal family details released. They have declined interviews. They don't even want to say where they live or the gender of the babies. (The World-Herald learned the breakdown of boys and girls).

Barsoom said he understands their hesitation. The children were born just shy of 30 weeks.

At that age, “you can't be guaranteed the babies are going to be absolutely healthy,” he said. “God forbid . . . something happens. The best thing is to wait until the babies are ready to go home and then introduce them to the world.”

That could happen, he said, in as early as six to 10 weeks.

While the latest quintuplets weren't the state's first — the Jensen five were born in 1998 — the latest batch has a different distinction.

Barsoom said he knows of no other quintuplets born after the mother had undergone “one dose, one cycle of fertility pills.”

(No in vitro fertilization, which involves joining eggs and sperm in a petri dish, or intrauterine insemination, which involves injections of sperm into the uterus, were involved, he said.)

To wind up with five babies after that limited therapy, Barsoom said, was “completely unexpected.”
“I don't think it's ever been reported in literature,” he added.

The case was transferred to Barsoom, a specialist in high-risk births. By the time he cared for the quint-carrying mom, he said, she was over the initial shock.

“She was a very good patient,” Barsoom said. “Her mood was good throughout the whole thing. She was very determined to get as far out as possible so the babies would be as healthy as possible.”

While fertility treatments and better neonatal care have increased the number of multiple births locally and nationally, Nebraska still has only one recorded set of quintuplets. In 2007, the last year for which such information is available, the Nebraska Health and Human Services reported the live births of one set of quadruplets, 17 sets of triplets and 466 sets of twins to Nebraska residents.

Sunday started out like most others for Barsoom, with morning hospital rounds. Then nurses told him that the quints' mom was contracting frequently.

For several weeks already, he had been trying to stave off the births, hoping the babies would not come until at least 34 weeks of gestation. Early admission to the hospital is typical so the mom can be monitored and on bed rest.

As Sunday morning continued, though, her contractions got stronger.

Barsoom said he tried a “few tricks” to stop them.

“Despite the things I was trying, contractions were closer together and stronger.”

Mom's pain was increasing, but she didn't want to make the call to deliver her children, leaving that up to Barsoom.

“Her mood was good throughout the whole thing,” Barsoom said.

Around 3 p.m., a C-Section began. Standing by was an entourage of about 15 doctors and nurses.
All went smoothly, said Barsoom. “We had plenty of help.”

It was not much different than the average C-Section, he said. “Instead of one baby, five came.”

Dad was relieved.

Mom is “doing wonderful, she's very happy.”

The quints? “Little preemie children, very cute,” Barsoom said.

He said a few, but not all, of the infants are on ventilators.

They were his first quintuplets, although he has also delivered quadruplets and triplets.

The quints were the first to be born in any of the area Alegent hospitals and have made quite a stir among the staff. Some nurses had asked to be called in if the babies were to be delivered on their normal day off.

Barsoom said he was pleased overall.

“It was a very nice day.”

World-Herald staffer Juan Perez Jr. contributed to this report.

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