The first mother to give birth to sextuplets in England for 25 years is ‘praying for a small miracle’ as her babies fight for their lives.
Vicky Lamb, 31, gave birth to four girls and two boys 14 weeks early – they are now in a critical condition in intensive care.
The tiniest of the babies, born last Friday at 11.05pm, weighed under 1lb 5 ounces and the biggest just 1lb and 15 ounces.
Specialist unit: A 31-year-old woman has given
birth to sextuplets at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford
In an interview with GMTV this morning, publicist Max Clifford, who is representing the family, said that Mrs Lamb and her husband Andy, 31, from Oxford, are ‘hoping and praying that everything is going to be okay - but they realise they are praying for a small miracle’.
Live births of such a high number of babies are incredibly rare and sextuplets is estimated to occur in just one in every 4.5million pregnancies.
The next few days and weeks are said to be ‘critical’ for the siblings, who are dependent on a vast array of medical equipment and the devotion of experts for their survival.
Staff in the hospital said they felt ‘privileged’ to have played a part in the birth, which had been the subject of meticulous planning over several weeks.
There were different teams of medical staff to look after the mother and each of her babies.
Brood: Janet and Graham Walton with their six
daughters in 1983. They were the world's first surviving all-female
sextuplets
‘They are receiving round-the- clock intensive care and specialist nursing at the moment and their condition is constantly monitored.’
The hospital said the family, who did not want to be named, had asked ‘at this very difficult time’ to be left in peace to focus on their babies.
Publicist Max Clifford, who is representing the family, today said Mrs Lamb fell pregnant after taking the same fertility drug she used before the pregnancy of her first child, Gracie, now aged five.
'They are just incredibly grateful for the John Radcliffe Hospital, the doctors and the nurses,' he said.
Talking about when the couple might be able to take the six home, Mr Clifford added: 'It is a long way off. They are fighting for their lives, they are still critical.'
While medical advances have made it possible for a more premature babies to survive, the last sextuplets known to have been born in England were delivered in 1986 - three years after the famous Waltons.
Walton wonders: Lucy, Ruth, Jenny, Hannah, kate
and Sarah Walton
Susan Coleman had used fertility drugs to help get pregnant and against all odds, six healthy babies were born to her and policeman husband Arthur.
Stuart, Gary, James, Jayne, Hannah and Nichola were born on November 12 at Homerton Hospital in London after 32 weeks and were brought up in Stoke Orchard, near Cheltenham. Most sextuplets are conceived via invitro fertilisation.
Doctors implant multiple embryos in case of some miscarrying, in an attempt to increase the success rate of the treatment.
They then recommend reducing the number of embryos, a practice which is at the centre of some ethical debate.
But last year sextuplets born in Northern Ireland were conceived without IVF. Austin and Nuala Conway welcomed the arrival of their ‘beautiful little miracles’.
The four baby boys and two girls, arrived into the world in just five minutes.
Mrs Conway and her husband Austin, both now 27, had defied medical advice to abort some of the babies at 14 weeks to increase their chances of survival.
But tragically, after only 60 days of life, Kerrie Mae Conway, the youngest of the six, died in hospital with her parents at her bedside.
They too were born 14 weeks premature and weighing from 1lb 7ounces to 2lb 2ounces they were immediately put into intensive care.
Last year in the U.S. Nadya Suleman gave birth to octuplets in California. She later faced criticism after it emerged that she was a single mother who already had six children, all conceived through IVF.
The 34-year-old had no means of supporting the babies, three of whom were born disabled She was also accused of cashing-in on them when she signed a £175,000 deal for all 14 of her children to star in a reality TV show over the next three years.
Three years ago a Russian woman also gave birth to quintuplets at the same Oxford hospital.
Vavara Artamkin, a 29-year-old music teacher, gave birth to Elizaveta, Alexandra, Nadezhda, Tatiana and Varvara in November
2007. They were delivered by Caesarean section by a team of 18 doctors and nurses.
Doctors in Russia had urged Mrs Artamkin to have selective terminations, but she refused to have abortions on religious grounds.