Posted on December 10, 2004 at 4:00 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Jamey and Emily Clingan of Jasper will be adding five new stockings over their hearth this holiday season with the arrival of the Clingan quintuplets. Mrs. Clingan gave birth to three boys and two girls between 12:51 and 12:53 p.m. today at UAB Hospital, delivered by a team of 24 doctors, nurses and technicians.

The babies, delivered via c-section, ranged in weight from 1 pound, 15 ounces to 2 pounds, 11 ounces. Maternal-Fetal medicine specialist Dwight J. Rouse, M.D., led the obstetrics portion of the team, which included ob-gyns James E. Kendrick, M.D., and Michael NumNum, M.D., plus five labor and delivery nurses, two surgical technicians and three anesthesiologists. The babies were immediately handed off to five separate teams of neonatologists and neonatal nurses, led by neonatologist Wally A. Carlo, M.D., division director of neonatal and perinatal medicine, and including Joe Philips, M.D., Robert Schelonka, M.D., and Akhil Maheshawari, M.D.

Rouse, an expert in high-risk pregnancies, said Mrs. Clingan is recovering from an exhausting pregnancy. Mrs. Clingan reached her 29th week of pregnancy Thursday, an important milestone in a high-risk pregnancy.

Mrs. Clingan was admitted to UAB November 11, where she has been followed closely by experts on the hospital’s antepartum unit. The unit is staffed with doctors and nurses specifically trained to handle high-risk pregnancies. These pregnancies include those at risk of complications or pre-term labor due to either multiples or other health complications such as gestational diabetes, high blood pressure or expected birth defects.

The Clingan quintuplets are being treated in the Level III UAB Regional Intensive Care Unit (RNICU) and are quickly adjusting to life outside the womb, according to Dr. Carlo. “It is still too early to tell how the babies will progress, but so far everything is going well,” he said. “For now our treatment goals include providing respiratory support and making sure they are getting proper nutrition.”