Octuplet Mom is Single, 'Obsessed' With Having Kids

Published Jan 31, 2009 11:00 PM

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Nadya Suleman is a single mom with 6 other kids who gave birth to octuplets in California January 26th

F.S.M. via Flickr
After giving birth to octuplets last week at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center, Angelenos, and people all over the country, wanted to know more about the babies' parents. 33-year-old Nadya Suleman tried to keep her identity a secret, but when it was revealed that the woman had six other children already, controversy began to swirl around the remarkable event.Suleman's mother Angela, who granted the Associated Press an interview, said her daughter "is not married and has been obsessed with having children since she was a teenager," according to cbs2.com. Her daughter conceived all of her children through in vitro fertilization, and the elder Suleman said "she was not supportive when her daughter [...] decided to have more embryos implanted last year." Despite her mother's firm belief in marriage, Nadya Suleman did not want to settle down with a husband, and opted to use fertility treatments to help her become pregnant when she encountered difficulty doing so naturally.

Suleman's desire to have children seems to have always alarmed her mother, who was relieved to learn her daughter couldn't conceive easily. Mrs. Suleman was so disturbed by Nadya's intense desire for motherhood that she consulted a psychologist who suggested she ask Nadya to leave the family home. Said Mrs. Suleman: "Instead of becoming a kindergarten teacher or something, she started having [children], but not the normal way."

Nadya Suleman had six children (now ages 2-7), including one who is autistic, and then wanted more.

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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.

Only 4 embryos were implanted, but because her system was "hyperstimulated" they multiplied, creating the octuplets. Angela Suleman is caring for the elder children while Nadya and the babies recover, but insists she will no longer be around to help when Nadya is released. Many professionals in the medical and psychological fields fear Nadya may find it unexpectedly difficult to cope with eight babies and her 6 older children at once, although she does have some training in the area; "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 counseling."Angela Suleman notes, however, that this is the end of Nadya's child-bearing: "She doesn't have any more (frozen embryos), so it's over now," she said. "It has to be."