All of them are receiving IV fluids, fluids for sugar and salt and water, ... The baby born 13 days ago is receiving feedings through a tube from the mouth into the stomach and seems to be tolerating that well. |
Due to personal and religious beliefs, she elected not to do that and we've continued to support her decision and care for her babies that are born, |
For certain families who are having trouble conceiving, I think they are a success, ... The problem, the side effect is you wind up with all these multiple pregnancies, multiple births which result in a lot of increase in health problems. |
However, with babies this premature and this small, the pendulum can swing the other way and back again in a matter of hours, |
Initial problems that we run into in the first few days are lung problems, heart and lung problems, ... Once we get through the lung and the heart problems, the next problems we run into are what we call metabolic problems -- sugar, water and salt. |
It's a day-to-day kind of thing, ... There are days when things go well. There are days when things don't go well. |
It's really too early to say (what their prognosis is). ... They are all critically ill. Several have shown some improvement and several haven't, |
This is the type of small, steady progress we hope for in the NICU, |
Today we stopped their sedation, ... We gave them all caffeine, which is an effort to help them improve their breathing, and tomorrow we hope to -- those who have had a good response to this -- to take them off ventilation and see if they can breathe on their own. |
We think by minimizing wide swings in their vital signs, minimizing a lot of their stress, we can minimize that event which we have very little to control, |
When you get up to these high order multiple pregnancies, the uterus is so large. It is so unusual to be able to keep the pregnancy to the point where you deliver and the babies are able to survive, |