A woman in California named Nadya Suleman (commonly misspelled as Suleiman) gave birth to octuplets on January 26th. While we’ve heard of women popping out six children at a time more and more these days, eight is still hard to believe. The story hit hard this week, spreading quickly through the web, print media, and by the water cooler. The babies are only the second set of octuplets born in the United States. Read more and see video here!!
Nadya Suleman - Octuplets Video
Nadya Suleman is the second woman in the US to give birth to octuplets. The babies were all born on January 26, in California. And in the shocker of the week, The Sun reported that she works at a fertility clinic. Not only that, but she also reportedly has six other children, including a set of twins, and is a single mom! Of the eight newborns, six are girls and two are boys. What’s she going to do on “take your daughter to work� day, rent a school bus? All of the babies appear to be doing well, even though they were born prematurely by roughly two months.
The woman allegedly lives at home with her parents, and there is no information about the father. Also, in news that may not bode well for the children, someone in the Suleman household filed for bankruptcy last year, and even abandoned a house.
Apparently Suleman only expected seven children, but the eighth came through a cesarean delivery. The mother herself has yet to speak to the public, but in statement given through the medical center she said:
“Please know, in our own time, we will share additional details about this miraculous experience. The babies continue to grow strong every day and make good progress. My family and I are ecstatic about all of their arrivals. Needless to say the eighth was a surprise to us all, but a blessing as well.�
I hope the babies continue to do well, and that the mother handles all 14 of her children with care. Only a few more and she could tie the Duggars.
Check out pictures of Nadya and read her interview here.
Watch video of Nadya’s interview below.
Nadya Suleman Octuplets interview Video
January 31st, 2009 at 11:45 am
LOS ANGELES - The woman who gave birth to octuplets this week conceived all 14 of her children through in vitro fertilization, is not married and has been obsessed with having children since she was a teenager, her mother said.
Angela Suleman told The Associated Press she was not supportive when her daughter, Nadya Suleman, decided to have more embryos implanted last year.
“It can’t go on any longer,” she said in a phone interview Friday. “She’s got six children and no husband. I was brought up the traditional way. I firmly believe in marriage. But she didn’t want to get married.”
Nadya Suleman, 33, gave birth Monday in nearby Bellflower, Calif. She was expected to remain in hospital for at least a few more days, and her newborns for at least a month.
A spokeswoman at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center said the babies were doing well and seven were breathing unassisted.
While her daughter recovers, Angela Suleman is taking care of the other six children, ages two through seven, at the family home in Whittier, about 25 kilometres east of downtown Los Angeles.
She said she warned her daughter that when she gets home from the hospital, “I’m going to be gone.”
Angela Suleman said her daughter always had trouble conceiving and underwent in vitro fertilization treatments because her fallopian tubes are “plugged up.”
There were frozen embryos left over after her previous pregnancies and her daughter didn’t want them destroyed, so she decided to have more children.
Her mother and doctors have said the woman was told she had the option to abort some of the embryos and, later, the fetuses. She refused.
Her mother said she does not believe her daughter will have any more children.
“She doesn’t have any more (frozen embryos), so it’s over now,” she said. “It has to be.”
Nadya Suleman wanted to have children since she was a teenager, “but luckily she couldn’t,” her mother said.
“Instead of becoming a kindergarten teacher or something, she started having them, but not the normal way,” he mother said.
Her daughter’s obsession with children caused Angela Suleman considerable stress, so she sought help from a psychologist, who told her to order her daughter out of the house.
“Maybe she wouldn’t have had so many kids then, but she is a grown woman,” Angela Suleman said. “I feel responsible and I didn’t want to throw her out.”
Yolanda Garcia, 49, of Whittier, Calif., said she helped care for Nadya Suleman’s autistic son three years ago.
“From what I could tell back then, she was pretty happy with herself, saying she liked having kids and she wanted 12 kids in all,” Garcia told the Long Beach Press-Telegram.
“She told me that all of her kids were through in vitro, and I said ‘Gosh, how can you afford that and go to school at the same time?”‘ she added. “And she said it’s because she got paid for it.”
Garcia said she did not ask for details.
Nadya Suleman holds a 2006 degree in child and adolescent development from California State University, Fullerton, and as late as last spring she was studying for a master’s degree in counselling, college spokeswoman Paula Selleck told the Press-Telegram.
Her fertility doctor has not been identified. Her mother told the Los Angeles Times all the children came from the same sperm donor but she declined to identify him.
Birth certificates reviewed by The Associated Press identify a David Solomon as the father for the four oldest children. Certificates for the other children were not immediately available.
The news that the octuplets’ mother already had six children sparked an ethical debate. Some medical experts were disturbed to hear that she was offered fertility treatment, and troubled by the possibility that she was implanted with so many embryos.
Others worried that she would be overwhelmed trying to raise so many children and would end up relying on public support.
The eight babies - six boys and two girls - were delivered by cesarean section weighing between one pound, eight ounces and three pounds, four ounces. Forty-six physicians and staff assisted in the deliveries.
February 1st, 2009 at 8:37 pm
This fertility clinic is allowing single mothers to take on a responsibility for married couples? How ludicrous. It’s good thing the mother didn’t abort the embryos though. It would have been really tragic if they were aborted. There should be some guidelines at the fertility clinic.
February 3rd, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Great let me donate a shoe, but on the serious side, I wonder if she loved children So Much, why did she not consider adopting? If people cannot meet the requirements to adopt, possibly, measures should be looked at for ethical reasons, to consider if they Qualify for such a large number of implanted embryos. In this economy, my heart goes out to the children, especially her autistic son that would require more attention. Children are not pets, nor they a hobby, I really hope that doctors would review the ethics of implanting someone with so many embryos.
February 9th, 2009 at 1:16 am
I am disgusted by the irresponsibility of the doctors’ involved.
This woman obviously has mental health issues, and should not have been permitted to have this many children.
Yes, it is the “rights” of woman to have as many children as they want; granted they can AFFORD to care for these children, WITHOUT social assistance, (as it is not the country’s repsonsibility to pay for these children), AND have the HELP to ensure that these children will not suffer in any manner by neglect, lack of attention, support, stability etc.
She claims she had a “dysfunctional” childhood; what in the world does she imagine these children will endure as a result of her selfish and insane freedom of choice here??
I have to wonder how “dysfunctional” her childhood was if her parents have allowed themselves to become bankrupt, and totally destroy their own lives by assisting their daughter in her “dream”?
What is wrong with our world today?
Why are there no limits on anything anymore? Everyone thinks they have the “right” to do as they please, regardless of how their desires might affect anyone else, in this case her innocent children.