Five months ago we gave you very beautiful, wonderful, exciting news, explaining that the first sextuplets in the country's history were born in Costa Rica. Since that day, since that milestone happened, we have gone sadly following the future of the six babies.
Unfortunately, four of them could not overcome the first weeks and only two could continue trying to survive, Gabriel and Valentina, who have lived a few more months. But two weeks ago Gabriel said he couldn't fight anymore and also left. Now only Valentina is left and, in such a situation, the debate on assisted reproduction methods is served.
How Costa Rican sextuplets were developed
When we learned the story we all thought that it was an in vitro fertilization, when several ovules are fertilized in a laboratory and then implanted in the woman, but that was not what happened, but they were the result of an artificial insemination treatment.
The couple had been married for ten years and had a baby who died at birth. They decided to choose to ask for professional help and this came through the first method that is tried after seeing that a pregnancy is not naturally achieved, and before a more expensive and controlled one such as in vitro fertilization.
What is in vitro fertilization?
The method of in vitro fertilization It consists of, as we have explained, extracting eggs from the woman and fertilizing them with the sperm of the man. Once they are fertilized, once the cells begin to replicate and we talk about an embryo, they are transferred to the woman's uterus so that pregnancy occurs.
Spanish law allows a maximum of three ovules to be transferred so that, at most, triplets are managed, but clinics are usually limited to two.
Adhering to this data, if this method had been followed, twins or triplets would have been more likely to survive.
What is artificial insemination?
Artificial insemination is more difficult to control because the method is more "gross", more natural. It consists of performing an ovarian stimulation so that at the time of ovulation there is more than one fertilized ovum. In addition, the sperm is mechanically inserted directly into the vagina, so that the probability of pregnancy is greater.
In this case, what is usually done as a control measure is Do not perform the procedure if it is observed that more follicles have been stimulated than recommended and there is a risk that there are many ovules. It is quite possible that this was what happened in the case of the sextuplets and that the procedure was not stopped due to the risk of many babies being pregnant.
The last control measure: selective abortion
When a multiple pregnancy occurs due to one of the methods of assisted reproduction, parents have the option to perform a selective abortion. This consists in aborting one or more of the fetuses to gestate only the number of babies that are actually desired.
Normally only one is aborted, but sometimes, when the pregnancy is of many babies, two or three fetuses can be aborted, to stay with only one or two. Personally it is something I would never do, and I commented a few years ago, because I would be unable to choose, of be me who said no to one of my babies, but it is an option to reduce risks.
Perhaps this was also what happened in the case of the sextuplets of Costa Rica: I imagine that they were told about the possibility of aborting some of the babies to give more chance of living to the rest, and that the parents were unable to do so.
Definitely…
We do not know exactly what happened, and if we elucidate it is only because the end is very sad, and in the same way that the beginning of the life of these babies made us happy, we are sorry for what happened and makes us think to what extent it is worth going through that they passed, if the joy turned into a few days in sorrow. And Gabriel lived a few more months, but never left the hospital.
What is your opinion? I believe that the mistake was in the procedure, that they should not have carried out the insemination if there was so much risk of such a large and dangerous pregnancy. Once this mistake was made, the decision made by the parents not to abort any baby is completely understandable: I would have done the same, clinging to hope and hoping that everything would end well.
