Angela Magdaleno's husband wanted many children, she just
didn't know that they were going to have this many.
 Director, Maternal-Fetal Medicine doctor
Kathryn Shaw, holds the quadruplets, two boys and two girls, born to
Angela Magdaleno, at the White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles,
Wednesday, July 12, 2006. Doctor Shaw led the team that delivered the
quadruplets on July 6. [AP Photo] |
Magdaleno, who had triplets three years ago, gave birth to quadruplets in Los Angeles on
July 6 by Caesarean section in what doctors said was a rare occurrence of
multiple births. Though she used fertility drugs with the triplets, she didn't
with the quadruplets.
The latest additions, two girls and two boys, were doing well Wednesday,
while their mother, resting at home, said: "I'm happy because they're healthy
and so am I."
Still, Magdaleno, 40, worried she might be overwhelmed with the work and
sometimes struggles with mixed emotions about the future. She has two older
daughters, too.
"I don't know if I'm sad or happy," she said. "I'm happy but, I don't know. I
don't know how to explain it."
Three years ago, Magdaleno gave birth to the triplets after undergoing in
vitro fertilization. She said her husband wanted many children. After their
birth, she thought she was done having babies.
Then she got pregnant with the quadruplets. Magdaleno said she was shocked at
the news.
"She wanted to run," said her husband, Afredo Anzaldo, 45, who lays carpet
for a living.
Her doctor, Kathryn Shaw, a high-risk pregnancy specialist, said Magdaleno
did well during the pregnancy and developed no complications.
The babies were born at 32 weeks, well beyond the 29-week average for
quadruplets. At birth, the girls were 4 pounds and 17 and 17.5 inches long; the
boys about 3.5 pounds and 16 inches long.
Shaw said the odds of conceiving quadruplets without fertility drugs
are about one in 800,000. She's seen only one other case of quadruplets
being conceived without drugs, 18 years ago.
Even more rare, the boys appear to be identical twins, according to their
doctor, Soha Idriss, who expects the babies will join their mother at home in
about eight weeks.
As of Wednesday, their parents were still deciding what to name them.
When the quadruplets come home, Magdaleno will have help from two older
daughters.
All 11 family members will be living in a one-bedroom apartment in east Los
Angeles. She said the living room is large, but she isn't sure what the family
will do when the babies get bigger.
When the older girls are at school and her husband is at work, a friend has
offered to help with the newborns and the triplets. "It's a lot of work," their
mother said.
In the hospital, the babies sleep wrapped in blankets and attached to
monitors and wires in separate incubators. They have full heads of straight dark
hair and plump pink mouths.
Anzaldo took the couple's triplets to White Memorial Medical Center to meet
their new brothers and sisters and to let Magdaleno get some rest at home.
They have accepted their new brothers and sisters, Magdaleno said. But at
first the triplets weren't sure if they wanted the extra siblings, Anzaldo said.
"They wanted one baby and no more," he said.