Couple originally wanted to have just one child

Editor’s Note: We joined the sextuplet-pregnancy journey of Mandi and Eric Jarvis at a 16-week sonogram, and we plan to follow their family throughout her pregnancy and beyond.

By Natalie Shelton

Mandi and Eric Jarvis, the Excelsior Springs couple expecting sextuplets, said their big news hadn’t always been met with joy.

The couple knew their decision to have all six babies wouldn’t be met with full approval, but they didn’t anticipate how openly negative some people would be, they said before Mandi Jarvis was admitted to the hospital on Dec. 11 at 18 weeks gestation.

“People have said so many hurtful things,” she said.

Part of the reason they came forward to share their news publicly was to explain to everyone, naysayers included, how their story unfolded.

They want others to know why they felt they couldn’t reduce the number of babies, a process called selection reduction, as well as how Eric Jarvis’ health insurance covered the costs of alternative fertility options.

Having a child

The Jarvises, married for a year, wanted to have children soon after they were married but learned Mandi Jarvis wasn’t ovulating enough for her follicles to mature and that Eric Jarvis had a low sperm count, which they later learned may have been because of a recent surgery.

Their Kansas City area fertility specialist, who doesn’t want to be named, allowed them to try alternative fertility methods earlier than some couples because of the varying factors in both their healths.

Health insurance covered infertility treatments up to $10,000, Eric Jarvis said; several nationwide health care insurance companies have a maximum lifetime benefit.

They attempted intrauterine insemination four times in conjunction with the drug Femara, which allowed them to stay within insurance limits, unlike in vitro fertilization. When that failed, they turned to Follistim, an ovulation-inducing drug.

The chances are highest of having one child or twins with Follistim, they said. Both Eric’s family, as well as Mandi’s, each has a set of naturally-occurring triplets (Eric’s mother’s first cousin and Mandi’s first cousin). After their pregnancy, they learned Eric’s extended family had three sets of twins.

They said they didn’t start their pregnancy journey with the intent or expectation of having multiples.

“I really wanted one baby, just one little baby to hold,” Mandi Jarvis said.

Considering their options

When a doctor first discovered five babies (the sixth made his or her onscreen ultrasound appearance later), he turned off the ultrasound before Mandi Jarvis could view it.

“He wanted her to think with her head, not her heart,” her husband said.

Soon after, he met Mandi in an examining room and gave her paperwork so she and Eric could prepare for selective reduction, a procedure used to reduce a higher-order multiple pregnancy. He wanted them to reduce what they thought was five down to three.

“He was adamant that we reduce them,” Eric Jarvis said.

After reading about selective reduction for four days, the couple decided they couldn’t do it, they said.

“We were always morally against it, but we were also afraid,” Eric Jarvis said. By “afraid,” he said they were worried about going against doctor’s orders both for Mandi Jarvis’ health and the babies’.

“I read there was a 15 to 20 percent chance in reduction of losing all of them,” Mandi Jarvis said. “I read how they inject potassium chloride into the amniotic sac.”

As for Mandi’s health, she was in a severe car accident at age 11, and because of it, 80 percent of her stomach and 30 percent of her liver were surgically removed. She also suffered a broken pelvis and humerus.

“My mother is thrilled that I’m pregnant, but she also doesn’t want to lose her little girl,” she said. “She’s worried about me, especially because of the stuff that happened when I was 11.”

Eric Jarvis said they finally decided they couldn’t be the ones to decide which babies to keep and which to let go. It would have to be up to “God or Mother Nature,” he said.

Mandi was nervous about telling her doctor they were keeping the babies.

“I didn’t want him to get upset because we weren’t doing what he felt we should do,” she said.

But when they told him, they said his tone turned softer and that he said, “That’s fine. I wouldn’t want anyone to make my decisions either.”

“After he said that, he stood up and shook Eric’s hand, and he gave me a big hug,” Mandi Jarvis said.

According to American Society for Reproductive Medicine information, a high-order multiple pregnancy carries a greater risk of a mother delivering too early. Mandi Jarvis is now 21 weeks pregnant; the average gestation of a sextuplet pregnancy is 29.1 weeks, and it’s 40 weeks for a singleton pregnancy.

Complications include a larger chance of miscarriage, birth defects, preterm birth and lifelong mental or physical handicaps, according to the society. Mothers of high-order multiples have an increased risk of diabetes, hypertension, preeclampsia and excessive blood loss at delivery. In general, the society information said, maternal and fetal complications are more severe the higher number of fetuses.

PINK OR BLUE?

Several weeks ago, Mandi and Eric Jarvis knew at least two babies were girls and two were boys. The other two babies “had their hands between their legs,” Eric Jarvis said.

But after a doctor measured the babies Dec. 20 at the hospital where Mandi

Jarvis was admitted at 18 weeks gestation, another baby came out of hiding.

It’s a girl, Mandi Jarvis said.

That brings the total to two boys and three girls. Doctors think the other baby may be a girl, she said. They range from 7 ounces to 10 ounces each and are all doing well, as is their mother, she said.

Staff writer Natalie Shelton can be reached at 781-4941 or nshelton@npgco.com.