No, this isn’t about alcoholic beverages - it’s on something that’s even more eye-popping. Just last week, two mothers from two different states delivered a complete set of sextuplets (count ‘em six!). Brianna Morisson, 24, from Minneapolis, Minnesota gave birth Sunday night. Morisson admitted to have used fertility drugs to help her conceive. Ten hours laters in the Midwest, Phoenix-native Jenny Masche, 32, also gave birth to six infants via caesarian section. Masche’s pregnancy was aided by artificial insemination. Her delivery was Arizona’s first successful statistic concerning sextuplets.

According to an eminent physician from Washington University, in the advent of fertility drugs and advanced interventions to help women conceive, medical practicioners will be more likely to deal with multiple births in the future. Prior to this phenomenal boom, the chances of arriving at a sextuplet birth was one in 4.7 billion.

Morrison’s four boys and two girls were premature and were weeks before the ideal gestational age at delivery. As a matter of protocol, doctors placed the babies under critical condition. The six were only 22 weeks into the pregnancy - over a month under the ideal. At that age, the lungs are not yet well developed due to the lack of surfactant. This means the airsacs are not yet able to keep themselves from collapsing during respiration.

The Masche sextuplets - three boys and three girls — were slightly better off than the their Minny counterparts. The Masche babies are 10 weeks premature (with36-40 weeks being the ideal). Just the same, such a gestational age would mean that their lungs are not yet fully developed for the environment outside the womb. Other than that, the Masche’s are almost twice as heavy as the Morisson’s. All twelve babies are being supported by ventilators to help their immature lungs cope with the challenges of respiration.

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