HOUSTON – This time next year, a family plans to celebrate six first birthdays.
A Lauren Perkins, of Pearland, gave birth to sextuplets at 10:26 a.m. Monday at Texas Children's Hospital - Pavillion for Women.
The three boys and three girls weighed between 1 pound 10 ounces and 2 pounds 15 ounces and were delivered via C-section.
Lauren and her husband are the proud parents who apparently struggled with infertility for a year and a half. The couple chronicled their babies progress on a webpage and explained that they used intra-uterine insemination and ovulatory stimulating drugs to conceive.
"Intra-uterine insemination is a really common procedure," said Dr. William Gibbons, a reproductive endocrinologist.
He is not the Perkins' doctor, but Gibbons does work at Texas Children's. "We essentially wash sperm and inject it into the uterus. To enhance it's success we often use fertility drugs to get a second or a thrid egg."
Dr. Gibbons explains that even with fertility treatments, having sextuplets is extremely rare.
"There are only one set of sextuplets born a year in the U.S.. It's a very, very rare circumstance," he said.
The Perkins' aren't ready to do any public interviews and they haven't released the names of the babies, but on their webpage they wrote; "Our feelings range from excited, overwhelmed and scared - all at the same time. We are completely trusting God throughout this adventure and we appreciate all the prayers and support from our family and friends!!"