Showing posts with label infertility. Show all posts
Showing posts with label infertility. Show all posts

Friday, August 21, 2009

Woman Pregnant With 12 Babies Crazy, Liar

A Tunisian woman's claim of being pregnant with 12 babies is a farce, a health official said Wednesday.

Dr. Mongi Hamrouni, head of the ministry's public health department, said he was "more than 99 percent" sure the woman claiming to be expecting six boys and six girls has a mental problem.

Medical experts were dispatched to the central city of Gafsa where the 30-year-old woman resides, but she again refused to be examined, another health ministry official said on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the case.

Mansour Hamhoum, a regional health official in charge of Gafsa, said he could not locate any medical records of the pregnancy in the city hospital.

The woman's lawyer Lotsi Smat said she's a former Arabic language teacher. Smat said he also doubted the woman's claim after she refused to show him an ultrasound confirming her pregnancy.

Health experts say a 12-baby pregnancy is next to impossible. They believe the woman could be experiencing a "phantom pregnancy," a rare condition where a woman believes she is pregnant and can actually develop symptoms consistent with pregnancy, like a swelling abdomen, missing a period or feeling that a baby is moving inside her.

source

Monday, August 17, 2009

Woman Will Give Birth To 12 Babies

Somebody needs to take some of these fertility doctors out back and beat some sense into them. A woman in Tunisia is believed to be pregnant with 12 babies (6 boys, 6 girls). She got pregnant with the supersized litter by fertility treatments after having recurrent miscarriages. The woman is a teacher, and will receive help from the Tunisian government. The father, Marwan is quoted as saying, "In the beginning, we thought that my wife would give birth to twins, but more foetuses were discovered. Our joy increased with the growing number."

Will this game of fertility one upmanship end when a woman dies? Because the babies in these supersized baby litters die or are disabled more than you hear about, and it hasn't put a stop to women trying to top the last stupid woman.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Would You Want A Baby That Looked Like Jon Gosselin


Well, how about Jim Carrey, Bill Gates, Joey Fatone, DJ AM, or Conan O'Brien. Because California Cryobank(One of the most reputable companies by the way.) is offering their Donor Look-A-Likes program. The same team that matches photos of your partner to photos of the donors has applied their talents to matching the donors to photos of celebrities. Some of the celebs are obscure and some just plain ugly, but you too can have a baby that looks like your favorite celebrity. The cryobank isn't offering a Brad Pitt look-a-like or a Gabriel Aubrey. If they had a Gabriel look-a-like I would be first in line. They do have Joe Jonas, Jude Law, Heath Ledger, and Daniel Radcliffe.

It was just a matter of time before some cryobank offered this service. But what do you do when your choice is no longer on the A-list? Do you really want a baby that reminds you of some D-list bottom feeder.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Octuplet Update 6 March

Octuplet mom Nadya Suleman already had six children after five successful in vitro fertilization treatments, but one big dilemma kept gnawing at her: What was she supposed to do with her six frozen embryos?

"Those were my children," Suleman told NBC. "I couldn't live with the fact that if I had never used them . . . that I didn't allow these little embryos to live or give them an opportunity to grow."

Now, anti-abortion groups in Georgia are using Suleman's story as a rallying call to enact stricter rules to govern the $3-billion fertility industry, which has some doctors worrying that the octuplets may be used as a pretense to pass laws restricting abortion rights.

Two other states, California and Missouri, are offering laws that critics say might create a confusing patchwork of regulations.
The Missouri bill seeks to adopt industry standards as law. The California law gives the state Medical Board oversight of fertility clinics.

But the Georgia bill, called "The Ethical Treatment of Human Embryos Act," defines an embryo as a "biological human being" and prohibits the destruction of frozen embryos -- wading into a loaded debate over abortion rights and embryonic stem cells.

It is backed by the Georgia Right to Life organization and drafted by lawyers from the Bioethics Defense Fund, an anti-abortion, anti-stem-cell group.

The bill would set limits on the number of embryos that can be transferred to a woman to two or three. In Suleman's case, she said six embryos were transferred, far above the number recommended for a 33-year-old woman using younger eggs. With fewer embryos, the chances of multiple births decreases, along with the need for selective reduction.

"I want to make sure what happened in California doesn't happen in Georgia," said state Sen. Ralph Hudgens, a Republican from Hull, Ga. "There is nothing in this law to limit abortions. I can't believe that people are reading that into it."

The additional provisions, though, particularly the section that prohibits the destruction of embryos, has alarmed doctors and fertility industry groups. Louisiana is the only state with a similar law that prohibits discarding human embryos. The president of Georgia Right to Life issued a statement saying the bill would protect embryos as "living human beings and not property."

"The Georgia bill uses the octuplets as an excuse to pass an extreme anti-abortion measure introduced and promoted by and for Georgia Right to Life," said Sean Tipton, a spokesman for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine."

Dr. Arthur Wisot, a Redondo Beach-based fertility specialist, agreed, saying it could "set fertility treatment back to the dark ages."

On Thursday, lawmakers sent the bill to a subcommittee for further review. If a compromise isn't reached and it doesn't move out of committee by Monday afternoon, the bill will be held up until next year, though Hudgens said it is far from dead.

Unless the industry is careful, the country could end up with a mishmash of policies that forces patients to doctor shop from state to state in search of laws most favorable to their needs, said Jesse Reynolds, policy analyst for the Center for Genetics and Society. The group called this week for congressional hearings, noting that federal oversight is the best solution.

"I firmly believe that we can rein in the fertility business," Reynolds said. "It's a $3-billion industry that's completely outside of regulatory control. Bring it in, draw lines that we can agree on, while protective [of] reproductive rights and further encouraging reproductive health and reproductive justice."

The industry has long claimed that its voluntary guidelines are adequate. Doctors frequently cite their own efforts to decrease occurrences of high-order, multiple births.

In 1997, the percentage of in vitro fertilization procedures resulting in triplets or higher was 13.7%. By 2007, and by its own self-regulation, the industry average was down to less than 2%, said Dr. Robert Schaaf, the Missouri Republican who introduced legislation to make industry standards into state law.

Schaaf said that although the American Society for Reproductive Medicine standards have resulted in more success and less danger, laws are still needed.

"What if a woman says, 'I want to implant 10 embryos in there?' " Schaaf said. "I think it is within the realm of the state to make sure that doctors don't participate in things that are harmful to people. . . . To purposefully get pregnant with eight babies, is that something that should be a right? I would argue no."

Other Octuplet Update
source

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Octuplet Update 18 February

California's controversial octo-mom is taking some more knocks.

Another media rep is backing away from drama mama Nadya Suleman while the babies' "overwhelmed" grandmother says a law should prevent excessive in-vitro procedures in the future.

Agent Wes Yoder, who runs the Christian-based talent agency Ambassador Speakers in Tennessee, confirmed his company helped Suleman hammer out licensing agreements for family photographs and even explored the possibility of signing her as a client.

Ultimately, "Ambassador has not executed a representation agreement, nor do we intend to do so," he said in a statement. "We urge the local churches, people of compassion and the pro-life community to participate in a thoughtful plan to assist the Suleman children."

Suleman's original publicity firm Killeen Furtney Group stepped down Saturday after receiving highly detailed death threats.

The octuplets' grandmother, meanwhile, appeared again on CBS' "The Early Show" Tuesday and said lawmakers should reconsider their hands-off approach to the number of embryos fertility doctors can implant.

"Maybe there should be a law to forbid a doctor to do this," Angela Suleman, a retired school teacher, told CBS.

Angela Suleman called her 33-year-old daughter "obsessive compulsive" but not mentally ill.


"She didn't seem sick," the granny said. "She was brilliant in her studies, but as far as everyday life is concerned, she is just not really thinking things through sometimes."

She said Nadya's first six children - ages 2 to 7 - did not want the new babies.

"They're pretty smart and maybe they thought they would not get the attention that they really deserve," she said.

The grandmother filed for bankruptcy and lost a house last year, so the whole clan currently lives in her "crowded" three bedroom house on a cul-de-sac in Whittier, Calif. She said her entire retirement check goes to the family every month.

Nadya Suleman told paparazzi she has no plans to star in a reality show to raise money.

"I think that's exploitation of my kids," Suleman told a photographer for TMZ.com
She has refused to name the sperm donor she claims fathered all fourteen kids and vowed not to accept welfare.

The Los Angeles Times reported she accepts $490 a month in food stamps and some federal assistance for her 3-year-old autistic son, a 7-year-old son with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and a 2-year-old with speech difficulty.

She also denied any fascination with Angelina Jolie, batting aside rumors she's had plastic surgery to look more like the glamorous celebrity mom.

"I'm actually not a fan of anybody, drives me nuts," she told TMZ. "I don't put people on pedestals. I don't like celebrities," she told TMZ.

She said the octuplets are doing "shockingly well."

Did they really think that a lying, single, welfare mom would be a good sell to God-fearing Americans? She's not going to do a tv show. Translation nobody wants to touch that family with a ten foot poll. She isn't going to accept welfare. She doesn't even make enough to cover the cost of housing and feeding herself and 14 kids. She will be parading to the highest media bidder every chance she gets. They will be in the tabloids when they all get home, when they start walking, on birthdays, and on every other milestone. How else is she going to support all these kids.

Grandma Suleman needs to go to court and get custody of the six oldest. The people of California are going to end up supporting them anyway. So the welfare payments might as well go to Angela, instead of to Nadya . Nadya will just waste it on plastic surgery. We all know that no fertility doctor would have anything to do with her crazy butt now, even if she wanted more IVF.

Other Octuplet Updates
source

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Octuplet Update 17 February


If you are thinking of donating money to the Suleman Octuplets, this is what she is spending your money on. Despite the fact that she is receiving food stamps and federal disability for her three of her children, and her babies are running up astronomical hospital bills , she is getting her nails done. I bet there are plenty mothers of one or two, or even three, who aren't getting their nails done. They are spending the money on their families because the economy stinks.

And she is claiming that she hasn't had sex in eight years. Just goes to prove that you don't need to have sex to have a baby (or eight) these days. She met David Solomon in a nightclub, they went on one date, and she decided that she didn't want him as a boyfriend. But he was good enough to father her children. And she was actually able to convince him of this.

She says of dating, “Boyfriends? I think I’d have to be extremely selfish. I cannot maintain a social life and be a mother.”

It seems that her mother is busy parenting the children, as Nadya has already perfected being extremely selfish. But I doubt that in the end anyone will be lining up to date the baby crazy mother of 14.

Other Octuplet Posts
source
source

Monday, February 16, 2009

Octuplet Update 16 February

wo Brentwood publicists said they dropped octuplets mom Nadya Suleman as a client Saturday because they have received a slew of death threats.

Suleman, a 33-year-old Whittier resident, was unmarried, unemployed and already had six children using a sperm donor when she gave birth to eight children from the same donor Jan. 26 at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Bellflower.

Joann Killeen, president of Killeen Furtney Group, said she and husband Mike Furtney decided to drop Suleman early Saturday. Soon after the births, the couple began representing Suleman for free, and almost immediately started receiving threatening e-mails and phone calls from people enraged over the octuplets saga, she said.

"They hope I die, they hope my business goes under, they want to rip her uterus out," Killeen said. "They say I should be anesthetized and put down like a dog."

Killeen said she and Suleman felt so threatened that last week they stayed at an undisclosed "secure location" for a few days before returning home. The babies are still being treated at the hospital, Killeen said.

After creating a website for Suleman on Tuesday, Killeen said, she received 55,000 e-mails, most of them negative, and she has stacks of angry mail.

Killeen said she and her husband became afraid enough to send their dogs to a kennel. On Friday, they contacted the Los Angeles Police Department, and officers told them that the threats were the worst they had seen since the O.J. Simpson case, Killeen said.

"The American public have just lashed out," she said. "I think it has to do with the economy, healthcare -- there's not a lot of jobs, people are unemployed and are trying to take care of their families."

Suleman has hired the Franklin, Tenn.-based Ambassador Agency Inc. to arrange a book deal and manage her appearances, Killeen said.

Ambassador represented an Iowa couple who had sextuplets in 1995 and the Rev. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church in Lake Forest, who spoke at President Obama's inauguration. The agency's president, Wes Yoder, did not return phone calls Saturday.

Nobody deserves death threats, but they should have expected the rest of the backlash. The public would have reacted badly to this story even if the economy was going great. Nadya Suleman acted in a completely selfish and irresponsible way. And then to set up a website begging for money, when there are perfectly responsible families really suffering because of the economy.

Other Octuplet Posts
source

Friday, February 13, 2009

Octuplet Update 13 February



Let me just start by saying, yuck.

The Beverly Hills doctor who helped Nadya Suleman conceive octuplets also provided fertility treatment to a 49-year-old woman who is pregnant with quadruplets and is hospitalized at County-USC Medical Center.

Several sources told The Times that Dr. Michael Kamrava transferred at least seven embryos made from younger donor eggs.

Fertility experts said that transferring that many embryos raises the odds of a multiple birth, which threatens the health of the mother and babies.

The California Medical Board is already investigating the octuplets case. In fertility medicine, any pregnancy greater than twins is considered a failure because of the danger it poses to the mother and the babies.

Quadruplet births are rare, with an average of 14 sets born in California each year, according to state records.

“I do think it is concerning, and dangerous, especially to the mother," said one doctor with knowledge of the case. "She is close to 50. When women get to be that age, our fear is the cardiovascular complications, such as stroke or heart attack. That’s how serious this is.”

The woman in the latest case arrived recently at Good Samaritan Hospital for treatment but was transferred last week to County-USC because she lacks insurance, the sources said. Doctors placed her on bed rest until the birth of the babies, which, they added, could be two or three months from now.

Reached by telephone, the woman, who is about five months pregnant, denied that Kamrava was her doctor. She said her doctors urged her not to talk to the media because she is already dealing with a high-risk pregnancy and doesn't need more stress.

"Please respect my privacy," she said.

(The Times has confirmed the information through several independent sources, who spoke on the condition that they not be named.)

The woman has three grown children from a previous marriage but wanted another child with her second husband, who is in his early 30s and doesn’t have any children. She works as an apartment manager; her husband is a contractor.

Kamrava could not be reached for comment and has declined previous interview requests. A woman who answered the phone at his West Coast IVF Clinic said, “If [a] mother wants to bring four kids, so what?”

Doctors at USC and Good Samaritan Hospital also declined comment about the quadruplet pregnancy, citing patient confidentiality.

The California Medical Board has said it is looking into the Suleman case to determine whether a doctor may have violated any standards of care.

The American Society of Reproductive Medicine said it is also examining the doctor's practice. Although it appears Kamrava violated professional standards, there are no laws that limit the number of embryos that can be transferred in a fertility procedure.

Suleman said in an interview with NBC that her doctor transferred six embryos. She gave birth on Jan. 26, and although the births were initially lauded as a medical miracle, public opinion quickly turned when it was discovered that Suleman had six other children, was a single mom and relying on some public assistance, including food stamps and Social Security benefits. In the only other octuplet birth in U.S. history, only seven of the babies survived past one week.

Another case of a multiple pregnancy for a mother who can't afford their upkeep. You can't just stick in a litter of embryos because the parents want it. Most parents want to have as many babies as they can at once, if for no other reason than because IVF costs a small fortune. Maybe Dr. Kamrava isn't obtaining his good results through skill, but through implanting too many embryos. If you put in four, one or two are bound to stick. Or is he putting in so many because the families can only afford one or two shots at IVF.

Los Angeles police officials said they would investigate death threats against the woman who gave birth to octuplets.

Nadya Suleman's publicist said some people had sent threats and other ugly messages via e-mail on a website set up to take donations for the eight babies. Suleman has come under criticism by some for having octuplets after already having six children.

Lt. David McGill of the LAPD's West Los Angeles Division said an investigator was going to the office of the publicist, the Killeen Furtney Group, which is in Brentwood.

"First we want to determine if the threats are being sent to the firm or her," McGill said.

He said if the threats were being sent to Suleman, then most probably another agency would investigate the matter because she does not live in the West Los Angeles area. Suleman lives in Whittier but has been living at an undisclosed location since leaving the hospital.

What did she expect when she set up that website begging for donations? There is no information other than the octuplets' names and weights, and where the public can make donations. Did they really think the words of encouragement would come flooding in.

Other Octuplet Posts
source
source

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Octuplet Update 12 February (Nadya Suleman, Queen of the Welfare Moms)


A big share of the financial burden of raising Nadya Suleman's 14 children could fall on the shoulders of California's taxpayers, compounding the public furor in a state already billions of dollars in the red.

Even before the 33-year-old single, unemployed mother gave birth to octuplets last month, she had been caring for her six other children with the help of $490 a month in food stamps, plus Social Security disability payments for three of the youngsters. The public aid will almost certainly be increased with the new additions to her family.

Also, the hospital where the octuplets are expected to spend seven to 12 weeks has requested reimbursement from Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program, for care of the premature babies, according to the Los Angeles Times. The cost has not been disclosed.

Word of the public assistance has stoked the furor over Suleman's decision to have so many children by having embryos implanted in her womb.

"It appears that, in the case of the Suleman family, raising 14 children takes not simply a village but the combined resources of the county, state and federal governments," Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten wrote in Wednesday's paper. He called Suleman's story "grotesque."

On the Internet, bloggers rained insults on Suleman, calling her an "idiot," criticizing her decision to have more children when she couldn't afford the ones she had and suggesting she be sterilized.

"It's my opinion that a woman's right to reproduce should be limited to a number which the parents can pay for," Charles Murray wrote in a letter to the Los Angeles Daily News. "Why should my wife and I, as taxpayers, pay child support for 14 Suleman kids?"

She was also berated on talk radio, where listeners accused her of manipulating the system and being an irresponsible mother.

"From the outside you can tell that this woman was playing the system," host Bryan Suits said on the "Kennedy and Suits" show on KFI-AM. "You're damn right the state should step in and seize the kids and adopt them out."

Suleman's spokesman, Mike Furtney, urged understanding.

"I would just ask people to consider her situation and she has been under a tremendous amount of pressure that no one could be prepared for," Furtney said.

Furtney said he, Suleman and her family had received death threats and had been getting messages that were "disgusting things that would never be proper to put in any story."

In her only media interviews, Suleman told NBC's "Today" she doesn't consider the public assistance she receives to be welfare and doesn't intend to remain on it for long.

Also, a Nadya Suleman Family Web Site has been set up to collect donations for the children. It features pictures of the mother and each octuplet and has instructions for making donations by check or credit card.

Suleman, whose six older children range in age from 2 to 7, said three of them receive disability payments. She told NBC one is autistic, another has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, known as ADHD, and a third experienced a mild speech delay with "tiny characteristics of autism." She refused to say how much they get in payments.

In California, a low-income family can receive Social Security payments of up to $793 a month for each disabled child. Three children would amount to $2,379.

The Suleman octuplets' medical costs have not been disclosed, but in 2006, the average cost for a premature baby's hospital stay in California was $164,273, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Eight times that equals $1.3 million.

For a single mother, the cost of raising 14 children through age 17 ranges from $1.3 million to $2.7 million, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is struggling to close a $42 billion budget gap by cutting services, declined through a spokesman to comment on the taxpayer costs associated with the octuplets' delivery and care.

State Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley, an oral surgeon who sits on the Health Committee, said that once a state Medical Board investigation is complete, lawmakers could review issues from government oversight to standards in fertility treatment.

Suleman received disability payments for an on-the-job back injury during a riot at a state mental hospital, collecting more than $165,000 over nearly a decade before the benefits were discontinued last year.

Some of the disability money was spent on in vitro fertilizations, which was used for all 14 of her children, Suleman said. She said she also worked double shifts at the mental hospital and saved up for the treatments. She estimated that all her treatments cost $100,000.

Fourteen states, including California, require insurance companies to offer or provide coverage for infertility treatment, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. But California has a law specifically excluding in vitro coverage. It's not clear what type of coverage Suleman has.

In the NBC interview, Suleman said she will go back to California State University, Fullerton in the fall to complete her master's degree in counseling, and will use student loans to support her children. She already owes $50,000 in student loans, she told NBC. She said she will rely on the school's daycare center and volunteers.

This woman has perfected milking the system. And how does she have time to work with her autistic children, who need extra care and time to be taught social skills. Anybody who donates money to this woman is a fool. I doubt that she ever plans to work.

Other Octuplet Posts
source

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Octuplets Mom On Foodstamps

Just when you thought that the Nadya Suleman story couldn't get any worse it comes out that she is recieving foodstamps. She can afford thousands of dollars worth of IVF treatments, but can't afford to feed her children. Foodstamps are there for people who really need help, not people who bring misery upon themselves. Do you notice how none of her plans involve her working.

$1.5 million. That's how much financial experts say it will cost the Southern California mother of octuplets to raise all 14 of her kids.

33-year-old Nadya Suleman gave birth to octuplets last month. She conceived the newborns - and her other six kids - through in vitro procedures.

That has sparked a debate and at least two investigations over whether she should have been able to have that many embryos implanted.

But right now, the top priority for the single, unemployed mom is how to pay for the next 18 years.

Financial experts say food alone will cost $22,000 a year, just for the kids.

Suleman says she plans to temporarily rely on student loans, and go back to school in the fall. Her publicist says she gets about $500 a month in food stamps.

Other Octuplet Posts
source

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Octuplet Mom Identifies Fertility Clinic


Baby factory, Nadya Suleman has identified the shady fertility clinic responsible for the octuplets. If you're having IVF you may want to look up the clinic because he's managed to get Suleman pregnant a ton of times. I know that if I need IVF it's the first place I'm going. That must do wonders for his pregnancy rate. But you better get there before the California medical board does.

The mother of octuplets was implanted with those embryos at a Beverly Hills fertility clinic run by a well-known — and controversial — specialist who pioneered a method of implantation. (A link to details of the method, Hysteroscopic Embryo Implantation.)

Dr. Michael Kamrava's name emerged Monday as a result of an interview aired Monday on NBC with Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to eight babies Jan. 26.

Over the past two weeks, the identity of Suleman's fertility doctor has been a source of great mystery because of questions over the ethics of implanting numerous embryos in a woman who already had six children.



Kamrava, 57, would not comment on the issue, but told reporters outside his clinic on Rodeo Drive that he had granted an interview to one of the television networks. When asked to provide more detail, he said, "Watch the news."

Without identifying the doctor, the Medical Board of California said last week it was looking into the Suleman case to see if there was a "violation of the standard of care." The medical board said Monday it has not taken any disciplinary action against Kamrava in the past.

In the NBC interview, Suleman did not identify her doctor by name, but said that she went to the West Coast IVF Clinic in Beverly Hills — of which Kamrava is director — and that all 14 of her children were conceived with help from the same doctor. In 2006, Los Angeles TV station KTLA ran a story on infertility that showed Kamrava treating Suleman and discussing embryo implantation.

Kamrava graduated from the University of Illinois and went to medical school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, according to state records and his Web site.

Some fertility specialists said Kamrava is a controversial figure in the field.

"He's tried some novel techniques and some of those methods have been controversial," said Dr. John Jain, founder of Santa Monica Fertility Specialists.

Other Octuplet Posts
source

Monday, February 9, 2009

Inside The Suleman Home




The mother of Nadya Suleman is saying that there is no way she can raise 18 children. And photos inside the Suleman home only prove the fact that Nadya can't care properly for her first six children and there is no space for eight more. She also has revealed that the sperm donor was Nadya's boyfriend and that he wanted to marry her. Wouldn't that be the best thing for her children, she could use the additional income. Since he is a sperm donor he is probably no responsible legally for the children's upkeep. (And she didn't always look like a poor man's Angelina Jolie.)

"The truth is Nadya's not capable of raising 14 children."

The mother of the woman who gave birth to octuplets recently is speaking exclusively to RadarOnline.com and says her daughter's actions are "unconscionable."

All of Nadya Suleman's children have been conceived with in vitro fertilization.

The comments from Nadya's mother Angela are adding fuel to the growing controversy that has already sparked an investigation by the California Medical Board into the circumstances surrounding implantation of six embryos into a woman with six children. (What are the odds of two sets of identical twins ? Because that is what would of happened in order for there to be 8 babies.)

When Nadya, 33, decided to be implanted with multiple embryos, Angela was stunned. She told RadarOnline.com: "I was very upset. She already has six beautiful children, why would she do this?

"To have them all is unconscionable to me. She really really has no idea what she's doing to her children and to me."

Nadya lives with Angela, a retired teacher, and Angela says Nadya contributes no money to the support of her own children. Eight people - soon to be 16 - are cramped into a small three-bedroom house and fed in shifts.

RadarOnline.com obtained exclusive photos inside the house, photos that are bound to raise more questions about Nadya's ability to care for so many children and a RadarOnline.com reporter described the interior as "filthy", with food on the walls.

"How she's going to cope, I don't know," Angela told RadarOnline.com about her daughter. "I'm really tired of taking care of the six children and need her to think about how she'll provide for all these children."

Angela told RadarOnline.com that Nadya turned her boyfriend into a sperm donor for all 14 kids, but refused to marry him. "He was in love with her and wanted to marry her," said Angela. "But Nadya wanted to have children on her own."

Nadya was so determined to have children, she first became pregnant at 16, Angela told RadarOnline.com. She miscarried, said Angela, and discovered she had blocked fallopian tubes.

Angela said that she and Nadya's father, Ed, begged one doctor not to implant any more embryos in Nadya, who already had six children. But Nadya found another doctor to implant six embryos, and two split, resulting in eight more babies. That doctor's decision to perform the in vitro has left the octuplets grandmother furious. "I'm really angry about that," she told RadarOnline.com.

Angela also voiced her anger over Nadya's claim she was raised in a dysfunctional family and was lonely as a child. "We raised her in a loving family and her father always spoiled her," Angela said.

"The truth is that Nadya hasn't worked since she started having her children," Angela, charged, "while Ed and I battled to pay her bills.

"Nadya promised to help me with the bills, but she never has. I lost a house because of it and now I'm struggling to look after her six. We had to put in bunk beds, feed them in shifts and there's children's clothing piled all over the house."

Angela told RadarOnline.com that she wasn't at the octuplets' birth because she was looking after the other six children. "But I saw the octuplets when they were two days old. They were so tiny and fragile, with bright purple skin, I was afraid to touch them but they're all doing well.

"Nadya has given them all Biblical names. Seven of them are dark-haired, but one, Noah, shows my side of the family. He looked so cute with his purple skin and bright yellow hair."

Nadya has blamed her parents for her decision but they are the ones dealing with the consequences. But she's been busy popping out babies and attending college while poor Angela Suleman has been at home taking care of all of her children.

Other Octuplet Posts
source

Friday, February 6, 2009

Octuplet Update

Suleman, who now has 14 children, told doctors she battled with depression for years after she was injured in a riot in 1999 at the state mental hospital where she worked.

The doctors' reports were included in more than 300 pages of documents released to The Associated Press by the state Division of Workers' Compensation on the same day NBC released excerpts of Suleman's first interview since giving birth last month. Among other things, the documents reveal that Suleman collected more than $165,000 in disability payments between 2002 and 2008 for an injury she said left her in near-constant pain and helped end her marriage.

Meanwhile, Suleman told NBC what her mother and others have said since the octuplets were born: that she always wanted a huge family to make up for the isolation she felt as an only child.

"That was always a dream of mine, to have a large family, a huge family," she said. "I just longed for certain connections and attachments with another person that ... I really lacked, I believe, growing up."

In the interview _ scheduled to air on the "Today" show Monday and again Tuesday on "Dateline" _ Suleman calls her childhood "pretty dysfunctional."

In the state report, however, doctors indicate she had a happy childhood. She told them she was an above-average high school student, enjoyed being a cheerleader, had many friends and stayed out of trouble. She said her parents were loving and supportive.

As an adult, however, she said she often battled depression as she struggled to get pregnant and particularly after her injury.

In the report, 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. She told NBC she struggled for seven years before finally giving birth to her first child in 2001 through in vitro fertilization.

She told a doctor who conducted a psychological evaluation for a workers' compensation claim that the first birth was "the most wonderful, best thing that's ever happened in my life."

Suleman said all her children have been born through in vitro fertilization, with sperm donated from a friend. The first six range in age from 2 to 7. The octuplets are doing fine, said officials at Kaiser Permanente's Bellflower Medical Center, where they were born Jan. 26.

According to the state documents, which were released to the AP following a public records request, 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.

As she was helping other staffers restrain a patient, a desk thrown at her by another patient hit her in the back. It caused damage to her spine and left her complaining of headaches and intense pain throughout her lower body for years.

She attributed it in part to the breakup of her marriage to Marcos Gutierrez, whom she had wed in 1996. She told a psychiatrist the bouts of depression she was suffering as a result of her injury were unfair to her husband.

"I don't want to keep bringing him down. I want him to move on with his life," she told a psychiatrist.

The couple split in 2000 and divorced last year. Gutierrez has not returned calls to phone numbers listed for him, and his divorce lawyer, Roberto Gil, declined comment.

Suleman has come under criticism from TV and radio commentators, bloggers and others who accused her of irresponsibly having more children than she appears prepared to care for. Some say she had the octuplets to cash in with a TV or book deal.

Although the two publicists she hired last week acknowledge she is reviewing such offers, one of her friends said Suleman simply loves children and didn't get pregnant for profit.

"She's not even interested in that right now," said Jessica Zepeda, who lives down the street. "It's funny and sad in a way, there's a lot of people saying really negative things and they don't know her."

Suleman's mother said she expects people's opinions to change now that her daughter is going public.

"She's a very likable person," Angela Suleman said Wednesday. "She's basically normal except for this obsession she's always had with children."

She's also a good mother, Angela Suleman said.

Her daughter, who was born in Fullerton, studied to be a psychiatric technician after graduating from a high school in La Puente in 1993.

She received a bachelor's degree in child and adolescent development from California State University, Fullerton, in 2006 and was studying there for a master's degree in counseling when she became pregnant with the octuplets.

"She may not be able to finish her master's degree now and she was so close to wrapping it up," her mother said.

Publicist Mike Furtney said Nadya Suleman has told him it's her dream to eventually earn a Ph.D. in some field involving counseling.

Public records show Suleman was listed on the Metropolitan State Hospital payroll from 1997 until last year, though it appears she did little work after September 1999 because of her injury.

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

"She's happy to be out of the hospital, although she misses her children," he said. "She can't wait until they join her."

The octuplets were born nine weeks prematurely and will be released from the hospital individually as they hit a near-normal newborn weight.

"At this point in their development, they are not mature enough to coordinate the suckling and swallowing at the same time to be bottle-fed," said Dr. Mandhir Gupta, the hospital's neonatologist.

Other Octuplet Posts
source

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Suleman Getting Few Donations

Where is the unlimited supply of diapers, formula and baby wipes? The free van? The brand-new house?

Women who give birth to six, seven or eight babies are often showered with dazzling gifts from big corporations, local businesses and strangers. But that is not happening with the Southern California mother who delivered octuplets last week.

The news that she is a single mother with six other children -- and that all 14 were conceived by having embryos implanted -- seems to have turned off many people, and companies are not exactly rushing to get publicity by piling on the freebies.

Nadya Suleman, 33, has been lambasted by talk-show hosts, fertility experts, even her own mother, who has her hands full taking care of Suleman's other children, ages 2 to 7.

A veteran Hollywood publicist said Suleman's handlers have their work cut out for them in trying to win public sympathy for her.

"I think it's a calamity," said publicist David Brokaw, who has handled crises for celebrities. "I don't see, the way this is shaped, how you can say much about it in terms of something favorable."

Makers of diapers, formula and other products would probably want to steer clear of her, Brokaw said. He suggested she lie low for now and concentrate on crafting an image as a responsible parent.

Gerber spokesman David Mortazavi said that if the baby-food maker was planning to do something for the family, it probably would have done it already, and that the octuplets' birth was not on Gerber's radar. He would not elaborate.

Procter & Gamble spokeswoman Tricia Higgins said that the maker of Pampers does not actively seek out parents to sponsor, but that the octuplets' mother can ask for what is typically provided in multiple births: a jumbo pack of diapers for each child, baby wipes, and coupons for discounts. That is unlikely to last Suleman a week.

Conservative radio talk show host Bill Handel in Los Angeles, who has branded the births "freakish," said on the air Tuesday that people are ready to boycott any corporations that help the octuplets or their mother.

Suleman's spokesman Mike Furtney said that he has received some "fairly negative" comments from the public but that offers to help with the babies have come in from nurses, and some baby stores have stepped forward to volunteer their support.

"I don't remember the brand name, but one major disposable diaper company sent some diapers," he said. Furtney said he was confident that once Suleman tells her story, many of her critics will "readjust their thinking a little."

Furtney said Suleman has had offers for TV and other media deals, but he added it was too early to discuss how much money she might receive.

For a single mother, the cost of raising 14 children through age 17 ranges from $1.3 million to $2.7 million through age 17, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Suleman octuplets' medical costs have not been disclosed, but the average cost for just one cesarean birth in 2006 was $22,762 in California. The Suleman babies were born nine weeks premature. In California, a single premature birth in 2006 led to an average hospital stay of 25 days and cost $164,273. That would amount to a $1.3 million bill for eight.

Suleman's income is unclear. She was employed by a mental hospital from 1997 through 2008.

Nasty callers dominated the phone lines in the first few days after the octuplets were born at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center.

"We heard a lot of outrage because there was a vacuum of information and people were going on rumor and conjecture," said hospital spokeswoman Socorro Serrano.

But calls of encouragement, particularly from mothers of multiples, have also poured in, along with offers of hand-me-downs and tips, Serrano said.

In 1998, Nkem Chukwu of Houston became the first mother to give birth to octuplets in the U.S. The family lives in a donated, six-bedroom suburban home, and the stay-at-home mom had a small army of volunteers help feed and care for the seven surviving babies for the first few years.

The parents of the McCaughey septuplets -- seven babies born in Iowa in 1997 -- received a donated 16-room house, a 15-passenger van, baby food from Gerber, and a lifetime supply of Pampers from Procter & Gamble.

The stars of The Learning Channel's reality show "Jon and Kate Plus 8," about a couple with sextuplets and twins, are paid, and have received a slew of freebies through the show, including trips to Hawaii and New York, a tummy tuck for mom and hair plugs for dad.

TLC President Eileen O'Neill said production companies that work with TLC have already made offers to Suleman's family, but the network is waiting to see how TV-friendly the family is.

"We're certainly like the rest of America; we're waiting to see how this develops," O'Neill said. "The number of children or scale of the multiples is intriguing, but it also comes down to what are the family's lives like?

Don't all mothers get a bag of diapers and some wipes when they leave the hospital. She had 8 babies and is going to get the same free crap that a singleton would get.

TLC likes the freaks, but I doubt even they will touch this family unless it gets even stranger. Nobody wants to watch a single mother of 14 date. And if they do, they watch Jerry Springer. Because that is some ghetto-trailer park crap. And the poor parents aren't even all the way behind her. They keep helping her, but her poor mother is fed up. And the accents aren't going to make selling a show any easier. She better pray that those babies are exceptionally cute if she wants the free stuff, because otherwise it isn't going to come.

Other Octuplet Posts
source

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Angela Suleman Keeps Talking

Angela Suleman, who became a grandmother of 14 when her daughter, Nadya, gave birth to octuplets on Jan. 26, isn't holding back about the controversy surrounding the babies – or her daughter, who is already the mother of six kids, ages 2 to 7.

"Her dad and I have told her she has six beautiful children. Why do you want more?" Suleman tells PEOPLE in its new issue, on newsstands Friday. "She is a good person but a little misguided."

Suleman suspects that Nadya, a divorced single mom who conceived all of her kids via in vitro fertilization, took such a drastic step to compensate for being an only child. "She was always upset about not having brothers and sisters," says Suleman, who previously questioned Nadya's decision making.

Suleman also revealed that her daughter, 33, has a degree in childcare from Fullerton College, a two-year community college in southern California. According to Suleman, Nadya has continued with her education. "She almost has her master's, but I don't know if she's ever going to finish with eight more [children]."


Saying she is "frustrated" by her daughter's choices, Suleman even disputes a report that she said the children are beautiful. "Newborns are never beautiful," she says. "They are so tiny I didn't want to touch them. They seemed so fragile."

Those close to the family are concerned about Nadya Suleman's well-being. "Shelooks 10 years older than she did a few years ago," says neighbor Thelma Steinweg. "She has had it rough."

Yolanda Novak, who says she served as a home health care worker caring for Nadya's autistic son three years ago, tells PEOPLE, "at that time she said, 'I plan to have 12 kids.' I said, 'By gosh, I can barely handle my twins,' and she said, 'I just like kids.'"

For her part, Angela Suleman – who lives with her daughter in Whittier, Calif., – is trying to decide her next step. "Nadya really is a good mother," she tells PEOPLE. "I love these kids ... I've been taking care of them since the first one was born, but I need a rest. I need a rest."

The free crap isn't rolling in for Nadya like it normally would. The economy is heading further south everyday, and companies don't want to be associated with someone who is angering the public. Mega multiples aren't getting free diapers, formulas, and other crap out of the goodness of corporate hearts (they don't have any), but to get their brand in the press.

And you have to feel sorry for Angela Suleman, but she kind of enabled this. Nadya's baby making factory wouldn't function without her mother there to back her up. And it sad that she blames herself because her daughter didn't have siblings, probably a decision that was made so that they could focus resources on Nadya. No her daughter probably had so many babies because she liked being the pregnant center of attention. If any company wants to give the family anything, it should be a paid vacation for Angela. I bet she would even be happy to visit her husband in Iraq.

Other Octuplet Posts
source

Monday, February 2, 2009

Mother Of Octuplets Baby Crazy



Nadya Suleman, 33, conceived all 14 of her babies through in vitro fertilization, her mother told The Associated Press. She isn't married and has been fixated on being a mother since she was a teenager, Angela Suleman said.

Last year, Nadya Suleman decided to have more embryos implanted, hoping to have "just one more girl," her mother told The Los Angeles Times.

"And look what happened. Octuplets. Dear God," Angela Suleman told the newspaper Friday.

She said she wasn't supportive of her daughter's decision to try to get pregnant again.

"It can't go on any longer," the grandmother told the AP. "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

It wasn't clear whether the octuplets mother was ever married. Angela Suleman told the Times that her daughter is divorced but the ex-husband isn't the babies' father.

Nadya Suleman gave birth Monday in Bellflower. She was expected to remain in the 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 2 through 7, at the family home in Whittier, about 15 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

She said she warned her daughter, "I'm going to be gone" when she gets home from the hospital.

Reports Friday cast Nadya Suleman in an unflattering light. CBS News reported that the single mother filed for bankruptcy and abandoned her home less than two years ago.

The elder Suleman told the Times her daughter "is not evil, but she is obsessed with children. She loves children, she is very good with children, but obviously she overdid herself."

She said all her grandchildren were conceived using the same sperm donor, according to the Times, but she declined to identify him.

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 declined.

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, 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 counseling, 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 in the reproductive medicine field and lively Internet conversations.

Some medical experts were disturbed to hear that the woman was offered fertility treatment, and troubled by the possibility that she was implanted with so many embryos.

Others worried that the mother would be overwhelmed trying to raise her brood and would end up relying on public support.

The eight babies — six boys and two girls — were delivered by Cesarean section weighing between 1 pound, 8 ounces and 3 pounds, 4 ounces. Forty-six physicians and staff assisted in the deliveries.

Now I am biased, I am having fertility problems, but someone needs to slap both the mother and her fertility doctor. How is this woman even affording expensive fertility treatments, and support six kids, and go to university. I won't even take Clomid because I'm afraid of conceiving twins and I know my body can't handle it.

I think that her decision may have a lot to do with our culture's obsession with higher order multiples. Look at how the Gosselins have been rewarded for having twins and then the six babies. Every time a set of higher order multiples are born the press heralds their birth and companies rush in to give them free stuff. Why not have eight babies when someone is going to give diapers and formula, and possibly a van and a bigger house? Kate must be thankful that this woman is being vilified in the press, because who would want to watch a show about a mom who only had six babies at once when they can watch one about a mom who had eight babies.

Gosselin Posts
source

Monday, January 26, 2009

Fertility Treatment Financing

As anyone going through infertility treatment knows it costs an arm and a leg to produce an illusive baby. I've been lucky my problems haven't required anything extremely expensive yet, but where do you turn if you have to come up with a small fortune. I been doing some research and came across Capital One Healthcare Finance. The company allows you finance $1,500-$40,000 at a fixed rate and pay for it over a term of up to 7 years. I hope that this information helps someone.

Other Infertility Posts

Monday, January 19, 2009

Cycle Day 18 (19-1-09)

That really high temp on cycle day 17 is because I only slept about two hours. And all the other signs make it look like I haven't ovulated yet. The highs in one of those little peaks is usually only 0.03 degrees higher than one of those valleys. So technically my temperature hasn't risen three days over the last six. So I'm using cervical mucus as a guide.

Other Trying To Conceive Posts
MedHelp

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Cycle Day 13 14Jan09

I think I'm ovulating. Somebody suggested that I try Fertility Friend. I entered the numbers and Fertility Friend gave me four different ovulation dates: cycle day 68 (the day before my period), and cycle days 4, 7, and 9. I think I will be sticking with MedHelp. If the numbers aren't clear it doesn't give you crosshairs. I don't need anymore confusion than I already have.

Other Trying To Conceive Posts

Monday, January 5, 2009

Cycle Day 4


My doctor wants to track another cycle to see if it was just a luteal cyst or if I'm not ovulating at all.

Other Trying To Conceive Posts