Human Multiple Births
Twins are by far the most common multiples born live. Multiple births of as many as eight babies have been born alive, the first set on record to the Chukwu family in Texas in 1998; one died and seven survived. In 2009, a second set, the Suleman octuplets, was born in Bellflower, California. To date, all eight have survived.
There have been a few sets of nonuplets (nine) in which a few babies were born alive, though none lived longer than a few days. There have been cases of human pregnancies that started out with ten, eleven, twelve or fifteen fetuses, but no instances of live births. The pregnancies of the 10, 11 and 15 fetuses have all resulted from fertility medications and assisted reproductive technology (ART). However there has been one documented case when 12 fetuses were conceived naturally.
Multiple pregnancies in humans are usually born prior to 38 weeks of gestation, the average length of pregnancy. Thirty-six weeks is average for twin births, thirty-two weeks for triplets and thirty weeks for quadruplets.
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