AN Oxfordshire mother has given birth to six babies – beating odds of one in 4.5 million.

Her babies are currently in intensive care after being born prematurely at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital.

The 31-year-old woman gave birth to four girls and two boys 14 weeks early at 11.05pm last Friday.

The parents have been named in the Telegraph as Vicky and Andy Lamb, who are also thought to have a daughter, aged five.

Just one in 4.5 million pregnancies ends in the birth of sextuplets.

Tonight, consultant neonatologist Dr Kenny McCormick said: “The next few days and weeks will be critical – babies born this early need a lot of specialist care.

“They are receiving round-the-clock intensive care and specialist nursing at the moment and their condition is constantly monitored.”

The babies range in weight from 590g to 880g (1.3lbs to 1.9lbs) and are all in the hospital’s specialist neo-natal intensive care unit.

The mother is reported to be recovering well.

It is not known if she conceived the babies naturally or as a result of fertility treatment.

An ORH spokesman said staff at the hospital felt priviliged to play their part in such an unusual birth.

The delivery had been planned several weeks in advance and a large team of doctors and nurses were present when the woman gave birth and involved with the immediate care of the babies.

Quintuplets were born at the hospital in November 2007 to a Russian couple. The babies were also 14 weeks early and needed special care.

Teachers Dmitri and Varvara Artamkin returned to Moscow with Tatiana, Elizaveta, Alexandra, Nadezhda and Varvara in February 2008 after months of treatment at the hospital.

Mrs Artamkin came to the John Radcliffe for help after doctors in her own country advised her to have selective terminations to reduce the number of foetuses – which she refused to do due to her religious beliefs.

All the family’s medical costs were met by a group of Russian philanthropists.

Only a handful of sextuplets have ever been born alive in the UK, including the Walton sextuplets in Liverpool in 1983, the Coleman sextuplets in 1986 and the Vince sextuplets in Leeds in 1993.

The last sextuplets born in the UK were to Nuala and Austin Conway, whose babies were born by caesarean section on May 22, 2009, at Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital.

They were given a 50 per cent chance of survival.

One of the babies, Kerri Mae, died eight weeks later on July 21.

The babies were conceived naturally.

The first sextuplets known to have been born alive in the UK were born to Barry and Sheila Thorns, in October 2, 1968, but one baby died shortly after birth and two within the next two weeks.

The average gestation period for sextuplets is just over 29 weeks, compared to a normal full-term pregnancy of 40 weeks.