ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 2, 1996 TAG: 9610020064
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LONDON
SOURCE: SUE LEEMAN\ASSOCIATED PRESS
FIVE FETUSES remain after the premature births, but the British woman's doctors say the outlook for them is poor.
Her doctors say she needs a miracle.
Mandy Allwood, the 32-year-old Briton who conceived eight babies with the help of fertility drugs, then peddled her story to a newspaper, was hospitalized in stable condition Tuesday after losing three of the fetuses.
She now runs a serious risk of losing more.
Allwood is receiving powerful drugs to stop her womb from contracting and delivering the remaining five fetuses prematurely.
Now in their 20th week, the fetuses need five more weeks in the womb to have a chance of surviving, doctors say.
``I think that is unlikely, but we do not give up hope,'' said Donald Gibb, a consulting obstetrician at King's College Hospital in London. He said the drugs are effective for days, at most.
``I don't normally use the word miracle, but it was something I nearly said to Ms. Allwood'' when she gave birth to three boys on Monday, Gibb said. Each weighed less than seven ounces ``and would fit in the palm of my hand,'' he said.
Gibb said he had seen the remaining fetuses on an ultrasound Tuesday and all had heartbeats and were moving. There are no fears for Allwood's health, he said.
The children's father, Paul Hudson, 37, was with her. Their relationship was strained when newspapers disclosed that he has another lover and two children. Both Allwood and Hudson are on welfare. Allwood, who is divorced and has a 5-year-old son, received fertility drugs from the free National Health Service.
Max Clifford, the publicist Allwood hired, insisted the babies' loss would not affect her lucrative deal with the News of the World tabloid, which he has estimated could be worth up to $1.5 million.
``She feels as fine as anybody could do in the circumstances,'' Clifford said after visiting his client.
``She was amazed how big they [the dead babies] were, and she is hoping and praying she will be able to hold on and have the five babies,'' he added.
It would be extremely unusual for Allwood to bring the remaining fetuses to term, said Dr. John Larsen, professor of obstetrics at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
``The uterus in the human species doesn't have the carrying capacity really for more than two,'' he said. The limit is determined by a number of factors: the original size of the uterus, the amount of amniotic fluid, and the weight and position of the fetuses. If one fetus implants low in the uterus, it may put too much pressure on the cervix, ending the pregnancy prematurely.
The News of the World, Britain's top-selling tabloid, insists it has not pressured Allwood to make any decision about aborting one or more of the fetuses - which doctors had recommended - although it indicated she would make more money if she had all eight babies than if she had a few.
Editor Phil Hall would not say Tuesday how much she will now receive. He told BBC radio that the newspaper is negotiating with Allwood, and if she needs further medical care as a result of losing the babies or wants a holiday, the paper will consider contributing financially.
At the start of her pregnancy, doctors warned Allwood, from Solihull in central England, that she risked premature delivery or miscarriage if she tried to carry all eight babies to term. But she rejected medical advice to terminate some of the fetuses, saying she would not know which to choose.
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Donald Gibb, consultant obstretrician at King'sby CNBCollege Hospital in London, said it was unlikely that the remaining
five fetuses would survive.