But even with fertility drugs, the chances of having four or more babies that survive a premature birth are very rare. The
arrival of sextuplets in B.C. has all of Canada's attention. It's happened before in the world - but not often. Here's a look at some of the more notable times parents have received the stunning news that they've produced an instant family.
June 4, 1915: The Keys Quads
In an era where this kind of news was more akin to a freak show than a miracle of birth - and when fertility drugs were non-existent - the Keys family of Hollis, Oklahoma produced the first same sex quadruplets known to survive to adulthood.
There were no X-rays at the time and no one seemed to have had any idea what was coming. All were girls, all went to the same school - Baylor College in Texas - and all graduated together.
By 2005, only one of the Keys' offspring was still alive. Roberta Keys celebrated her 90th birthday that year, thinking of the siblings she grew up with and lost over the years.
May 28, 1934: The Dionne Quintuplets (pictured, top left)
It was the date that will forever be remembered as one of Canada's most remarkable moments - and also one of our most shameful. In the small town of Corbeil, Ontario, a set of five tiny girls was born to a poor rural family. The Dionne Quintuplets were the first recorded in modern history to survive past infancy and instantly became worldwide sensations.
In a less enlightened time, they were put on display almost as though they were a side show. As many as 6,000 people a day would stream past the girls to catch a glimpse of Mother Nature - and Mother Dionne's - handiwork through a one-way mirror.
The children were used to endorse all sorts of commercial products, ranging from cereal to corn syrup.
Their father used them to make money and so did the doctor who delivered them. That led to them being taken away from their parents' custody by the government and a court battle by their dad to get them back. He did - but not until 1943, almost a decade after they were born.
More scandal would follow in later years, when the surviving sisters re-emerged in 1995, alleging their father sexually abused them. They also sued the Ontario government for allegedly keeping a share of the money they earned in their infant stardom. In 1998, the three surviving girls were paid $4 million in compensation by the province.
October 24, 1974: The Hansen Quads
What are the odds of one set of quadruplets graduating from the same university as another group of siblings in similar circumstances? It happened in Texas in 1997, where the Hansen girls all received their diplomas from Baylor College in Waco - the same school where the Keys quads matriculated in 1937 (see their story, above.)
The children, who were born in San Antonio, also had their moment in the limelight. They appeared on the "Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," "Regis and Cathy Lee," and "Maury Povich", along with numerous other talk shows.
All the girls are very smart - they're each fluent in German and Spanish - and attended the school on separate academic scholarships.
January 11, 1974: The Rosenkowitz Sextuplets
They were born in Cape Town, South Africa and were the first sextuplets known to have survived their infancy. There were three boys and three girls. Only one still lives in the country where he was born. The rest have made new lives for themselves in London, England and Dublin, Ireland.
November 11, 1983: The Walton Sextuplets
They came into the world appropriately enough on Remembrance Day. The six girls were all something of a surprise to their stunned parents, who were told by medical experts that they would never have children and had just been informed they'd been approved to adopt a child.
Their father was forced to take a year off from his jobs as a painter and a decorator to help raise them.
September 21, 1987: The VanderWoude Quadruplets
The three boys and one girl were born in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
May 25, 1993: The Dilley Sextuplets
They became the first surviving sextuplets in the U.S. and were instant celebrities the day they arrived in Decatur, Indiana.
Their parents met while they were both working at a fast food restaurant and soon got married. But they were devastated when doctors told them they'd never be able to have children. Desperate, Becki Dilley tried a fertility drug called Pergonal. It worked only too well, producing four boys and two girls.
Like all multiple births in this media saturated age, they became famous, spawning a TV movie about their arrival that aired in 1999. And 'fans' have even started a website dedicated to their upbringing and their story, in which the parents also contribute. You can see it
here.
November 19, 1997: The McCaughey Septuplets
The world's first known surviving set of seven were born in Des Moines, Iowa and haven't been out of the public eye since. There are four boys and three girls and two very ragged parents.
The children came about because of fertility drugs and their mother Bobbi declined a medical procedure that would have terminated several of the fetuses and reduced the danger to the survivors. Incredibly, all survived, although two of the children were born with cerebral palsy.
The publicity surrounding their case - including a yearly update aired by one U.S. TV network news magazine - has resulted in the middle class McCaugheys getting help with their onerous expenses.
Many companies donated free services and goods to help the parents cope with their sudden baby burdens, with the corporations garnering publicity for their 'good works' along the way.
January 14, 1998: The Humair Septuplets
This case is remarkable not only for the birth of four boys and three girls, but the fact that the mother was 40 years old when she delivered them. It happened in the Saudi Arabian town of Abha, and caused a local sensation. The mother took fertility drugs and wound up with an unplanned pregnancy - and seven new mouths to feed.
At one point, there was controversy in the small facility where the kids were born, because the hospital was running out of room in the 20-bed nursery and was overwhelmed by having so many babies in the special ward at the same time.
Hospital officials threatened to call police if they didn't leave after several weeks.
There were also serious questions about how the family would cope. Their 55-year-old father only earned $1,000 a year as part of a pension payment, had two other wives - and nine other children.
Eventually a Saudi prince donated more than $50,000 to help tide them over. But with so many kids, it wasn't clear how long that money would last.
September 21, 1998: The Brino Quadruplets
What better place for an instant showbiz family to be born than in Woodland Hills, California? The kids - three boys and a girl - would for a time "star" as the two boys born in the third season of the hit TV show "7th Heaven".
When they got too old to be continually switched around, two of them - Nikolas and Lorenzo - assumed the permanent roles of the Camden twins Sam and David and have played them ever since.
December 8-20, 1998: The Chukwu Octuplets
An exceedingly rare eight children were born in Houston - but not at the same time. The first child was delivered on December 8th, 15 weeks premature. The other seven came via Caesarian section on the 20th and were 13 weeks early.
There were six girls and two boys conceived with the use of fertility drugs, but the smallest child, a female named Odera, died just a week after being born.
July 21, 2001: The Qahtani Septuplets
They were born in Washington, D.C. Their father, a high school teacher from Saudi Arabia who was a student at George Washington University at the time of his kids' birth, regularly gave press interviews about his five boys and two girls.
But after the 9/11 attacks, the Saudi government - which was paying the expenses for the big brood - ordered the family to take a lower profile and they returned to their home in Virginia.
The couple already had a nine-year-old son when his siblings were born. They'd previously lost two other children to organ failure.
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