The birth of five children by American couple Danielle and Adam Busby attracted worldwide media attention. The birth of five all-girls took place at Houston’s Woman Hospital in Texas and set a new record as the first all-girl birth in the US and also the first in the world in 46 years.
At that time, five girls were born by ᴄᴀᴇsᴀʀᴇᴀɴ sᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ at 28 weeks of pregnancy. In just four minutes, doctors performed a ᴄᴀᴇsᴀʀᴇᴀɴ sᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ quickly to bring the five babies out of the ᴡᴏᴍʙ safely. All were healthy but weighed under 1 kg.
Before having quintuplets, the couple Danielle and Adam Busby had a baby girl. But when they first tried to have children, they had to battle ɪɴꜰᴇʀᴛɪʟɪᴛʏ for two years. After being unable to ᴄᴏɴᴄᴇɪᴠᴇ naturally, the couple decided to seek the help of I.U.I. Then, they ᴄᴏɴᴄᴇɪᴠᴇᴅ a girl and shortly after, this mother had five children in a row. And it’s little wonder, given the odds are 41 million to one.
During her pregnancy, Danielle had to follow a huge diet when consuming up to 4,500 calories a day. After birth, the babies had to stay in the hospital for 4 months to receive special care.
After bringing the babies home, the couple embarked on a military-style regime in order to cope with raising their bumper brood. Danielle and Adam worked round the clock to keep their babies fed and clean, changing 420 nappies a week and making up to 40 bottles a day. Adam also took time out from his job in the oil industry, but the couple struggled.
“It was exhausting. Days and nights just ran together,” Adam said. “We’d have a 45-minute break after feeding, changing and cleaning bottles, and then we’d have to wake them up again. It seemed like it would never end. I was delighted to get away to work.”
But while having five brand new babies may have been exhausting, the parents admit that it only got tougher once the quintuplets hit their terrible twos. “They are so full of energy; we are constantly trying to find ways to tire them out,” Danielle said at the time.
The girls are now aged five and have spent the last year cooped up in lockdown. “All I can really hope for is to keep them busy. If they’re busy enough they’re not going to get bored and aggravated,” Adam said. Not wanting to take any chances, Adam has now had a vasectomy. Danielle said, “This is our family. We are blessed and we are complete.”
Currently, five girls, Olivia, Ava Lane, Hazel Grace, Parker Kate and Riley Paige are growing as healthy as other babies of the same age. The first recorded birth in the United States was on April 29, 1896, but unfortunately, no baby survived for more than a month.