reviewsnthoughts

“All I ever wanted was children.” - Nadya Suleiman.

 What was she thinking?

 It’s been a bit over 10 days since the world woke up to the news that a woman in California had given birth to the second of only two successful deliveries of eight babies, but after an initial collective “Aww, how sweet” reaction from most people, public opinion has taken an opposite turn as more details surface about the initially mysterious mom and her apparent obsession with having babies.

In previous cases of multiple births - starting with the Dionne Quintuplets in the early 1930s - which attract media attention, most people have reacted positively, particularly if it’s a situation in which a married couple had been trying to raise a family for many years but had had problems conceiving a baby.   “Miracle babies” often get sympathy votes from the press, baby product companies and the general public as a whole.

And at first, when most of us heard or read about the anonymous patient who gave birth to the octuplets at the Kaiser Permamente Hospital in Bellflower, CA, we did have a brief moment of collective wonder.  Wow.  Eight babies.  Only the second such set of live babies born in the U.S.  Over 40 doctors and nurses involved in the delivery.

The era of good feeling has been extremely short lived, however.  With each passing day, the public sentiment has done a 180-degree turn from Aww to Ugh.

Far from being born to a long-suffering couple which had turned to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) to help them overcome fertility problems, the six boys and two girls have a single and presently unemployed “professional student” for a mother - 33-year-old Nadya Suleiman.

Now, most people understand that millions of single mothers have successfully raised kids on their own with or without assistance from any government agencies.  Additionally, most Americans tend to shy away from commenting on how many children a mother should be allowed to bring into the world.

But with Ms. Suleiman, the fact that she’s used IVF methods (and using the sperm of only one donor) not just in this instance but several times and now has a total of 14 children has created a huge backlash.

In the Whittier (CA) Daily News’ website, a reader expressed what seems to be the majority view when he wrote, “Nadya Suleman is a single 33 year old unemployed woman with six fatherless children (one of whom has autism) who lives with her bankrupt parents and intentionally had 8 more children who will probably have long term medical problems themselves due to her stupid decisions. Who’s going to pay for these 14 children?”

And even as California’s medical board is thinking about investigating the doctor who knowingly implanted multiple fetuses into Suleiman’s womb in violation of established IVF guidelines,  Nadya is coming across as an obsessive baby factory rather than a sympathetic mother figure.

According to her mother - who said she wants no part in this octuplets-raising business - Nadya had wanted another girl desperately.

All this would be fine and good with most people if Ms. Suleiman wasn’t coming across as a somewhat sleazy and nutty person who has been staying at home for more than 10 years after a work-related injury sidelined her from a career as a social worker at a mental institution.  And the fact that she hired a publicist and allegedly was hoping to get paid seven figures for her television interviews hasn’t helped her already tarnished image about being self-centered and greedy.

As to what she was thinking? 

In her interview with NBC’s Ann Curry, Nadya Suleiman revealed her motives when she said, “That was always a dream of mine, to have a large family, a huge family, and I just longed for certain connections and attachments with another person that I really lacked, I believe, growing up.”

What, six kids weren’t enough?

Trackback URI | Comments RSS