An American woman has given birth to eight babies and has become only the second person recorded in the US to have delivered a complete set of living octuplets.
The babies, who were nine weeks premature, were delivered by Caesarean in the hospital in Los Angeles.
The six boys and two girls weighed in at between 1lb 8 ounces (820g) and 3lb 4oz (1.47kg) and are all said to be doing well. Three of the babies needed help breathing, but all were otherwise doing well.
The mother, whose identity has not been revealed, has requested the hospital only releases limited information about the births.
One of the doctors from the medical team present at the birth described it as a'successful' delivery and said that they were screaming and kicking around very vigorously. A hospital spokeswoman said the deliveries took place in the space of just five minutes and it was all "truly amazing".
A Caesarean section had been planned for seven babies and so the doctors were surprised when an eighth came out. "Lo and behold, after we got to Baby G, which is what we expected, we were surprised by Baby H," said Dr Karen Maples.
The babies will be in incubators for at least six weeks and according to hospital officials the mother is planning to breast feed them all.
The world's first live-born set of octuplets were delivered in Houston, Texas, in 1998 and one baby died about a week later. The surviving seven siblings — girls Ebuka, Gorom, Chidi, Chima and Echerem, and their brothers Ikem and Jioke — celebrated their 10th birthday in December.
Their Nigerian-born mother, Nkem Chukwu, said the new parents had much to look forward to. "Just enjoy it. It's a blessing, truly a blessing," Mrs Chukwu was quoted as saying. "We'll keep praying for them."
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