Wichita ? A south-central Kansas woman gave birth to sextuplets on Saturday, delivering three boys and three girls. They are the first in Kansas history.

Doctors said Sondra Headrick and her children were doing well. Four are on a respirator and the other two are on oxygen, but they appear healthy, doctors said.

Doctors at Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Joseph delivered the babies by Caesarean section between 2:21 p.m. and 2:23 p.m. The babies weighed between 2 pounds, 10 ounces and 3 pounds, 11 ounces.

Headrick and her husband named the children Ethan Roy, Melissa Sue, Grant Douglas, Sean Edward, Jaycie Linette, and Danielle Patrice. They all squealed when they were born, Dr. Katherine Schooley said.

Headrick carried the babies for 31 weeks. A full pregnancy is 40 weeks, but in Headrick’s case doctors had hoped she would carry them for at least 26 or 27 weeks. Headrick carried her sextuplets longer than any other mother in the United States, hospital officials said; a German mother carried sextuplets for 32 weeks.

“It is a miracle the mother was able to hold onto the babies as long as she did,” Schooley said. “I anticipate all the babies are going to do very beautifully.”

Via Christi doctors said only 96 sets of sextuplets have been born worldwide since recording began in the early 1900s. Of those, only 17 survived to 28 days. Some of the children lived with vision problems, cerebral palsy or other health defects.

Headrick has been in the hospital for the past 93 days. Doctors delivered the babies Saturday because they feared for the health of one of them. Headrick was awake throughout the procedure, which involved a 24-member delivery team.

“From a medical standpoint, the birth of these babies was uneventful,” Dr. Van R. Bohman said.

The Headricks did not speak at a hospital news conference on Saturday. Doctors said the couple might be available to talk today. The babies are expected to be hospitalized for four to six weeks. Sondra Headrick is expected to be released in a few days.

Headrick’s sextuplets resulted from fertility drugs used last summer. Headrick, 33, and her husband, Eldon, 32, have another daughter, 4-year-old Aubrianna.

The Headricks are from Rago, about 40 miles southwest of Wichita, which until Saturday had a population of 12.