At 25, quintuplets no longer in spotlight

[flashl]

Indy's Gaither kids liked the attention

Associated Press • August 5, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS -- The five Gaither siblings, whose 1983 births made the news and the history books, turned 25 Sunday without the television news crews that chronicled their earlier years.

Ashlee, Renee, Rhealyn, Brandon and Joshua became the first known surviving black quintuplets when they were born to Suzanne and Sidney Gaither.

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In 1983, the birth and the survival of quintuplets was extremely rare. But in the years since then, the proliferation of fertility drugs has made multiple births increasingly common.

Sixty-eight sets of quintuplets were born in the United States in 2005, according to the most recent data from the National Center for Health Statistics. Since the Gaithers were born, six sets of quintuplets have been born in Indiana.

But even now, the odds of a quintuplet birth -- without the help of fertility drugs -- are rare, about 1 in 65 million.