Six sets of twins were born at Saint Luke’s East Hospital within one month. (Fox4KC.com)
A Missouri hospital is seeing double this week as its maternity ward tends to six sets of twins ranging in age from 3 to 30 days old.
A Saint Luke’s East Hospital spokesperson told Fox4KC.com that while the hospital regularly delivers twins, it’s rare to see six sets in the maternity department at one time.
“We’ve actually had families call us up in the last 24 hours and want to come here to deliver their twins,” Brenda Cornell, Saint Luke’s maternity manager, told KMBC News. “We’re very excited about that.”
“We’ve had lots of practice,” she added.
All 12 babies— three boys and nine girls— are in good health, Fox4KC.com reported.
No fertility drugs were used in the six pregnancies, KMBC News reported.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)report released Thursday found the rate of twin births in the United States is higher than ever before— a trend that health officials believe is due to an increase in use of fertility treatments and women having children later in life.
The rate reached a 33.7 twin births out of every 1,000 deliveries in 2013. The number is up 2 percent from 2012, the CDC reported.
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