Neighbours say that the woman in her thirties is a single mother and has six other children. She lives with her parents and other children in a three bedroom house, ABC news reported.

The woman, whose name has not been released by the hospital, is only the second ever to give birth to octuplets.

The women expects a big challenge in raising 14 kids, mother of the lady told The Los Angeles Times adding that she is happy to have more grandchildren.

"I looked at those babies. They are so tiny and so beautiful," she said.

The hospital staff did not comment on whether she had received fertility drugs, which have been linked with instances of multiple births, ABC News reported.

But fertility experts have been extremely critical of such high-risk births, which can threaten the life of the mother.

The six prior children raise an additional alarm, and the question of what accredited fertility expert to administer fertility drugs to a mother of six.

The mother told the newspaper that her daughter had embryos implanted last year, and after finding out she was pregnant with multiple babies was given the option by doctors of selectively reducing the number of embryos. But the woman declined.

The octuplets, two girls and six boys who weighed between 0.69 kg and 1.47 kgs, were delivered at Caesarean section of Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Centre in California by a 46-member team of doctors.

The "very vigorous" babies, born in the space of five minutes, were nine weeks premature and shocked the hospital which had been planning for a seven-baby delivery for weeks.

After the birth of babies media had camped outside the family's home but the grandfather warned that media may have a tougher time finding the family once the babies are released from the hospital.