In a special delivery, a second one of its kind in the US, a woman delivered eight babies - all alive and kicking! Weighing between 1 pound, 8 ounces, and 3 pounds, 4 ounces, the set of octuplets has six boys and two girls.

The babies, born nine weeks premature, were delivered by Caesarean section in Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center, Los Angeles, California. The Caesarean section had been scheduled by the hospital for seven babies, but the eighth baby surprised even the doctors. Two of the newborns have been placed on ventilators and one needs oxygen.

The identity of the mother - her name, condition or whether she used fertility drugs - has not been disclosed. The mother, who plans to breast feed all her babies, also requested that limited information be released about her babies.

Dr. Mandhir Gupta, a neo-natologist caring for the newborn infants, said about the mother: "She's a very strong woman, so she probably will be able to handle all eight babies."

Turning back the pages of US history for the first live octuplets, it was in December 1998 that the babies were born in Houston. The three months premature, babies weighed between 11 ounces to 1 pound, 11 ounces. After a week of their birth, the tiniest of the eight infants died of heart and lung failure.

According to Encyclopedia Britanica, the first live octuplets in the world were born in March 1967 in Mexico City, unfortunately though all the babies died within 14 hours.