Nadya Suleman

Octuplets Mom Nadya Suleman Today Show Interview With Anne Curry

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Nadya "Octomom" Suleman unveils a banner for pet birth control in front of her home on May 19, 2010 in La Habra, Orange, California. (Getty Images)more pics »

Today Show correspondent Anne Curry has the first exclusive interview with octuplets mom Nadya Suleman. The interview has been cut into pieces with a large segment devoted to a special episode of Dateline NBC. What can she say other than that people are judging her because she is broke and just had a bunch of babies she can't afford to raise. The newborns will be revealed exclusively on NBC next week. Many people are questioning the ethics of the childbirth.

And on the ninth day, the eight “Suleman Babies A to H,” oblivious to their place in the record books as the second set of octuplets born in the United States and now the longest surviving, rested comfortably in a hospital. A publicist for their mother, Nadya Suleman, 33, who already has six young children, went on “Good Morning America” on ABC to portray Ms. Suleman as a “wonderful woman” who is “joyful for the miracle of life and the babies” as she weighs book, television, newspaper and movie requests from around the world to tell her story.

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News organizations were staking out the hospital in Bellflower, Calif., and the modest, three-bedroom house on a cul-de-sac here where Ms. Suleman lives with her parents, Angela and Ed Suleman, and her other children. Photographers encircled a FedEx driver as he delivered several baby seats on Tuesday, stepping past an assortment of toy trucks and cars, a scooter and a double stroller in the yard.

And a national discussion — on talk shows, blogs, in coffee shops, and Ms. Suleman’s block, among other places — raged over whether this was a cuddly family a-bloom or medical science run amok. Ms. Suleman’s own mother has voiced objections to her having so many children.

Baldo Ramirez, who lives next door to the Sulemans and said he sold the family the home several years ago, said he was torn between wishing the family well and worrying over the care of the children.

“It’s nice in a way, but they are poor people and cannot afford this,” Mr. Ramirez said. “But God provides a way to cope.” source

The mother of newborn octuplets says she had six embryos implanted in her fertility procedure — far more than industry guidelines recommend under ordinary circumstances — and was well aware that multiple births could result.

"I wanted them all transferred," Nadya Suleman told NBC's "Today" show. "Those are my children, and that's what was available and I used them. So, I took a risk. It's a gamble. It always is."

"It turned out perfectly," Suleman added in a portion of the interview broadcast Friday.

Other portions of interview are scheduled to air next week.

The interview and public documents obtained by The Associated Press lifted the veil of secrecy in which Suleman shrouded herself after the Jan. 26 births.

The 33-year-old single, unemployed woman has been harshly criticized for having a fertility procedure and risking multiple births when she already has six young children, including twins.

With in vitro fertilization, doctors frequently implant more than one embryo to improve the odds that one will take. However, the U.S. fertility industry has guidelines that call for no more than two embryos be implanted for women under 35 "in the absence of extraordinary circumstances."

Experts say there is a small chance that embryos can divide, which apparently led to the octuplets.

Suleman said she had six embryos implanted for each of the previous in vitro procedures that resulted in her other six children, including twins.

"All I wanted was children. I wanted to be a mom. That's all I ever wanted in my life," she said. "I love my children.

In the interview, Suleman said she struggled for seven years before finally giving birth to her first child. According to state documents, Suleman told a doctor she had three miscarriages. Another doctor disputed that number, saying she had two ectopic pregnancies, a dangerous condition in which a fertilized egg implants somewhere other than in the uterus.

Suleman said all 14 of her children were born by in vitro fertilization from sperm donated by a friend.

Suleman's publicist, Mike Furtney, said Thursday that Suleman was "feeling great" and looking forward to being reunited with her octuplets, who were born prematurely and are expected to remain in the hospital for several more weeks.

The state documents describe Suleman becoming pregnant with her first child after a 1999 injury during a riot at a state mental hospital where she worked.

Suleman feared she would lose the child and sunk into an intense depression, according to a psychological evaluation in her workers' compensation case.

"When you have a history of miscarriages, you think it will take a miracle," she told Dr. Dennis Nehamen. "I just wanted to die. I suspected I was pregnant but I thought, 'That's ridiculous.'"

But the 2001 birth of the baby "helped my spirits," Suleman said.

More than 300 pages of documents were disclosed to The Associated Press following a public records request to the state Division of Workers' Compensation.

Among other things, they reveal that Suleman collected more than $165,000 in disability payments between 2002 and 2008 for the work injury, which she said left her in near-constant pain and helped end her marriage.

Details of the documents were reported the same day that NBC released excerpts of Suleman's first interview since giving birth.

In the interview, Suleman called her childhood as an only child "pretty dysfunctional."

In the state documents, however, doctors quoted her as indicating she had a happy childhood. She told them she was an above-average student at Nogales High School in La Puente, where she enjoyed being a cheerleader, had many friends and stayed out of trouble. She said both her parents were loving and supportive.

According to the state documents, Suleman was injured Sept. 18, 1999, when a riot involving nearly two dozen patients broke out in the women's ward of the Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, where she worked as a psychiatric technician. As she was helping other staff members restrain a patient, a desk thrown at her by another patient hit her in the back. It damaged her spine and left her complaining of headaches and intense pain throughout her lower body for years.

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Elsewhere on Zimbio:

Octomom Was Already Receiving Food Stamps

(Huffington Post, Getty Images) Nadya Suleman, also known as the Octomom, was already using food stamps to help pay for the six children, even before giving birth to octuplets on January 26. This is despite her claim in an interview with Ann Curry that she does not accept welfare to help care for her family. The LA Times reported today that the 33-year-old California woman receives $490 a month in food stamps, as well as additional federal assistance money for three of the six children... Read Full Story

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