Since the birth Jan. 26 of octuplets to California mother Nadya Suleman, broadcast and print media have been filled with news of the babies and their family. The stories have played out like a bad soap opera -- only it's so very real -- and seem to get more bizarre as the days go by.
February was full of information about the amazing feat of what this 33-year-old woman has done in terms of an enomously dangerous and stressful pregnancy ... and her family life.
ItsYourBirthdayBabies has posted a few of these stories, but for the most part we have left it to media outlets to give Americans and the world the daily fill of news. Our purpose is to celebrate the womanly feat of childbirth and new lives brought into the world.
Regardless of public opinion now, the fact that this woman carried eight children for nine months and is still alive and well enough to discuss it is absolutely amazing.
This is an obstetrical feat that is totally unique and has been repeated only three times in the world that we know of at this date. The octuplets in California are the only ones who have survived without a loss of any of the children.
Of the only other set of octuplets born in the U.S. one of the babies died. The six remaining children born in 1998 to mother Nkem Chukwu and husband Iyke Louis Udobi in Texas are now 10 years old. The parents also had another child in 2002.
We admit that at first the American public was fascinated at this amazing pregnancy. Who was the mother? Why so many?. How could it happen?
However, as information about the mother and her family situation was revealed the joy and wonder that people had about the births turned to intense criticism about the woman's mental state and financial ability to care for eight newborns.
(There are six boys and two girls -- Josiah, Makai, Jeremiah, Nariyah, Jonah, Noah, Maliyah and Isaiah. All share the middle name Angel.)
The first hints of disapproval began after the public learned that Suleman already had six children, all under age 7, including two with autism. Public opinion really turned nasty, and downright dangerous, after people learned that she is receiving public assistance.
Her first publicist quit after receiving numerous threats.
Surprise. All 14 children were conceived by in vitro fertilization. All crowded into a three-bedroom house in an area where neighbors are split between support and complaints.
There is an overworked and disgruntled grandmother -- Angela Suleman -- who is fed up with her daughter's numerous pregnancies. Grandfather Ed Doud is supportive, but whom we first heard would return to his native Iraq to find work to support all 14 of his grandchildren.
He, his wife and daughter have become media stars -- if that's the right word. (They have appeared on NBC, RadarOnline, TMZ, Oprah, Dr. Phil, ABC, Inside Edition, and on and on.)
Nadya Suleman, who is divorced, turns out to be a mother unable to provide for her own care and that of her previous children and the eight newborns. She appears to be an unstable mother who had help from a questionable doctor with her obsession for numerous children. It seems she's an only child trying to make up for her lack of siblings during a lonely childhood.
She told Ann Curry of NBC, "That was always a dream of mine, to have a large family, a huge family."
The medical community that was so awed is now up in arms, calling for medical malpractice against the fertility doctor in question -- Dr. Michael Kamrava. Rumors and some factual information indicate that officials at Bellflower Medical Center are threatening to prevent Suleman from taking the eight babies home without assurance of their proper care.
The world wondered about the father.
A boyfriend of three years who now has two sons of his own wants to know if the newborns are his children. Nadya Suleman says no, but the potential father wants a DNA test to make sure. He doesn't trust his former girlfriend, but he plans to help no matter the paternity results, according to abcnews.com.
Suleman's former husband, Marcos Gutierrez, told Inside Edition March 4 that the children are not his, but that his ex-wife is "a great person with a great heart."
By now we've all heard the police audio tapes of her calls to 911 when one of her older children went missing, apparently following his grandmother around the neighborhood.
Several times Nadya Suleman threatened to kill herself. The words did not help her negative public image.
An aol.com survey on March 9 showed that 89 percent of Americans are tired of hearing about the mother-- dubbed 'Octomom' -- and her family issues. It's a case of "if I never again hear the name Nadya Suleman it will be too soon."
Still, Suleman's father, ex-boyfriend, medical personnel and some commentators are correct. Her babies are going to need help, regardless of what anyone thinks about their mother.
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