Strollerderby : multiple births

OctoMom's Kid - Bite Mark And Black Eye

Brett Singer — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:30:00 GMT

This is disturbing.

Social Services paid a visit to Nadya Suleman's home the other day. Surprisingly, this isn't a regular occurrence. They were there to investigate because one of the OctoMom's children, Aidan, had gone to school with a black eye and a bite mark on his back. After a 45 minute interview, investigators left without taking action.

Orange County Child and Family Services and La Habra police did not comment because, you know, things like this are supposed to be confidential. Nadya, however, did an interview with her exclusive outlet, RadarOnline. (Remember when Radar was this hip and cool magazine? Yeah, not anymore.)

In the interview, she managed to make me question her parenting skills even more than I might have previously, which is impressive if you think about it. She tells the interviewer that the social services visit was her fault, because she didn't see the note that Aidan's teacher had pinned to his backpack asking about the injuries. To be fair, I've missed notes as well, but they weren't asking me if my children were participating in after-school cage fights. The scariest line to me is that Aidan's black eye is from "falling down," something he does because he has autism. There's a moment where Nadya says the black eye is from his meltdowns, and "in the process of throwing him... throwing himself on the floor..." I know, it's just a slip, but it's creepy.

As for the bite mark, Nadya says it's from one of his siblings. (To borrow a line from Robin Quivers on the Howard Stern Show, "They're eating each other!")

In the video, you get to see Ms. Suleman attempt to discipline one her kids as he first hits his sibling, then hits the camera. "We're just starting time outs," she says. Seems to be working great. She also tells us that the officials told her they were impressed with how well the family was doing, and "how well-organized her home was." Wow. I don't believe that statement one bit.

I know. It's not fair to criticize parenting skills. Right? Except that she's making these videos on putting them online. Mostly I just feel bad for the kids. There's no way they could possible be getting anything resembing a decent amount of attention from their mother.

Source: AP via Yahoo and RadarOnline

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Octo-Mom Home With All Eight Kids - VIDEO

Brett Singer — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:45:00 GMT

Nadya Suleman, the Octo-Mom (do we really need to say that anymore?), has "finally" brought the eighth and final octuplet home to roost. Jonah is his name. (Someone less sensitive than I would make a whale joke here. But I won't.)

RadarOnline has the EXCLUSIVE video of Nadya and the children. The kids are cute. There are a lot of them. She already has six. That makes fourteen.

We know all of this, of course. The question is, do we still care?

Is anyone else surprised at how quickly we seem to have become uninterested in Mme. Suleman? I wonder if whoever signs her up for a TV show is prepared for "Denise Richards – It's Complicated" level ratings. I mean, would you watch an Octo-mom show? Maybe at first, but for how long?

Anyway, here's the video for those who are interested. I sort of am. But I think I've reverted to feeling sorry for the kids, and even slightly sorry for her. Not that I think she didn't create this situation, but, as Hannah wrote, she seems like she might be "crazy in a way that requires compassion and serious psychiatric treatment, not a media campaign, and definitely not a fertility clinic." Well put.

Source: RadarOnline

Another Day, Another Dollar, Another Octomom Exclusive Interview

OctoMom's Second Publicist Quits

Suleman Cashing In - Trademarks Term Octomom

The Secret to Octomom's Expensive Pregnancies

Open Letter To The Woman Who Pushed Me While I Was Picking Up My Kid

Family Awarded Millions For Circumcision Mistake

Woman Will Go Free If Son Comes Back To Life

Gloria Allred Sits On A Booster Seat

Brett Singer — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Reading this headline might cause you to think that we're being mean. Before you darn me to heck, though, consider this -- it's true.

W Magazine developed a fascination with Ms. Allred not dissimilar to our own. A key difference is that W Magazine's office is in the same building as Allred's, so staff members at the mono-syllabic-named mag popped in on a recent press conference she had regarding the OctoMom. (Nadya Suleman, perhaps you've heard of her?)

Anyway, among other amusing observations, the editors noticed that the "small and compact" attorney (their words) was seated on an actual booster seat. This one.

What seems odd to me is why Allred wouldn't just get a phone book, or a more grown-up version of a booster seat. Like maybe a pillow. The W editors wonder if "Maybe it's something she picked up from the Suleman kids?" Either that or product placement. Only time will tell.

Image: WMagazine.com

OctoMom's Second Publicist Quits

AUDIO - OctoMom 911 Calls Released

The Dr. Phil And OctoMom Show

OctoMom Video Blog at RadarOnline

OctoMom Rejects Angels In Waiting Offer

OctoMom Says Denis Beaudoin is Not OctoDad

Realities of Discharging Octuplets

Jimmy Kimmel And The Octomom

Brett Singer — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Now that I'm a parent I find that I don't have time to watch late night TV, but Jimmy Kimmel seems to have gotten pretty funny while I was busy with my brood. Luckily I can catch it all in dribs and drabs online. (Note: these are only sort of safe for work/the eyes and ears of your kids, so proceed with some caution.)

Like the rest of us, Kimmel has been taking pot shots at Nadya Suleman, aka the Octomom. Unlike the rest of us, he has a staff of writers and video people. (None of these are examples of tremendously complex comedy but it probably helped to have, you know, help.)

This video is really all about the wax lips that Jimmy puts on (and eventually eats) when he "plays" Nadya Suleman on his late night talk show. So it's a cheap gag, but still kind of funny.

It is a little gross when Jimmy/Nadya pulls out a Mason jar of embryos and sits on them. But again, it's kind of funny in a Beavis/Butthead sort of way. I'm also not sure whether he's talking about Nadya or Dr. Phil when he says he wouldn't "give money to that lunatic."

Jimmy also has video of the birth:

The babies are flyin'. Look out!

And Jimmy looked at the video of Nadya and her mom:

That little edit at the end didn't happen. It's kind of like the scene in 'True Lies', where Ah-nuld imagines punching out the car salesman who was lusting after his wife. Wish fulfillment. Something tells me Nadya's mom wouldn't mind having a DVD of that clip to watch when things get tough.

Image: DailyTube

OctoMom Says Denis Beaudoin is Not OctoDad

Power Ranger Toys For Babies And Adults

Wolverine Blow Up Toy

OctoMom's Second Publicist Quits

OctoMom Video Blog at RadarOnline

New Rick Springfield CD For Kids

AUDIO - OctoMom 911 Calls Released

RENT Too Risqué For Some Schools

Will Ferrell's Landlord Retires From Comedy

The Dr. Phil And OctoMom Show

Brett Singer — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:30:00 GMT

Who needs a publicist? Dr. Phil seems to have decided that he's going to ride the OctoMom Express as far as it will take him.

First, he convinced Nadya to accept help from Angels in Waiting. They may be sketchy, but if Dr. Phil says it's the right thing to do, then that's what

Then he visited the octuplets. Here's a clip:

I like the part where he says, "Oh, of course you see them all the time." Because we need to be reminded of that.

And now he's going to reveal what the arrangement is going to be -- but not until his next show! Because he cares about... ratings.

I understand that Dr. Phil is a TV host and he wants to make money. That's fine. But he pretends that he's being somehow helpful. That's not fine. I mean, he has exactly the same license to practice therapy that I do – none. Nadya Suleman needs actual help, and I don't just mean changing all those diapers. I mean, Angelina Jolie can't adopt all eight of her kids, right?

Source: All over the freakin' Internet

Image: Me and Photoshop

OctoMom's Second Publicist Quits

AUDIO - OctoMom 911 Calls Released

Realities of Discharging Octuplets

OctoMom Video Blog at RadarOnline

OctoMom Rejects Angels In Waiting Offer

OctoMom Says Denis Beaudoin is Not OctoDad

Gloria Allred Offers To Help OctoMom

OctoMom Says No Dating For Her

Video: Homecoming For Octomom's Babies!

Angelina Jolie Could Always Use an Extra Baby

OctoMom's Second Publicist Quits

Brett Singer — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:23:00 GMT

Victor Munoz, the second publicist to take on the OctoMom as a client, has quit. He's also talking smack.

From Us Magazine:

"It just got to be too much," he says. "It's pretty much a free for all over there right now. They are freaking out right now.
"Not to sound arrogant, but those people depended on me for everything," he continues. "You have no idea what I’ve had to do for these people.
"Nadya got real greedy. This woman is nuts," he adds. "This I can say: what ultimately destroyed the business arrangement was personal reasons."

Here's the best part:

Munoz -- who plans to meet with his lawyers Monday to go over the terms of his contract and confidentiality clause -- did not go into further detail.

Oh! Well thank goodness he didn't go into any further detail. And I'm sure we're all thrilled that he's going to see what confidential information he can share.

It was never clear to me why Nadya needed a publicist. Anyone who worked for her should have realized that they were getting involved in a situation that was unlikely to end well. Having worked in PR, I can honestly say that sometimes a client is not worth it. In fact, the only thing that can make a difficult client more bearable is money. In this case, how could there be any money to be had? Suleman's previous flack, Joann Killeen, claimed that she was doing the job gratis, and bailed when she received death threats. Now maybe I'm the crazy one here, but when I hear that about an available job that pays nothing and comes with death threats, my first thought isn't, "Hey! Job opening! Cool!"

I guess Nadya's not the only one who likes the drama.

We now return to... the neverending story...

Source: Us Magazine

Image: Me and Photoshop

Realities of Discharging Octuplets

OctoMom Video Blog at RadarOnline

OctoMom Rejects Angels In Waiting Offer

OctoMom Says Denis Beaudoin is Not OctoDad

Gloria Allred Offers To Help OctoMom

OctoMom Says No Dating For Her

OctoMom Loathes Being Pregnant

Realities of Discharging Octuplets

Brett Singer — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Here's a new twist on the neverending OctoMom story -- reality.

According to the blog Reality Rounds, discharging preemies, especially 8 of them, is always something that hospitals have to take very seriously. Caring for a premature baby is more difficult than caring for a child who was full-term. Even with a mother who isn't a quasi-celebrity, the babies aren't necessarily just released when the mother decides it's time to go.

This isn't always the case, however. Shannon says that when she arrived to pick up two preemies that she was adopting, no one did any due diligence to make sure she was able to take care of them. "I certainly wasn't visiting them and proving I could diaper and feed them daily, as I didn't know they were alive until the social worker called and said 'come and get your baby.'" Shannon wonders if this would have been the case if the babies had been white.

And Jeanne suspects that the real reason behind the hospital's reticence is legal in nature. "With a high publicity case like this, the hospital lawyers must be frothing at the mouth," she said.

(Note: we all chat by email about this stuff, that's where the quotes are from. In case you were wondering.)

When Nadya tells Dr. Phil that she is worried that the hospital won't release her babies, she should really be concerned with how exactly she is going to care for them. Babies are a tough job. Eight preemies? The mind boggles.

Source: Reality Rounds (thanks to Alice for the tip)

Image: Me and Photoshop

OctoMom Rejects Angels In Waiting Offer

OctoMom Says Denis Beaudoin is Not OctoDad

Gloria Allred Offers To Help OctoMom

OctoMom Says No Dating For Her

OctoMom Loathes Being Pregnant

UPDATE! Octo-Mom Alert! Police Visits and a Child Services Investigation

Octo-Mom Birth Video to Fetch a Cool Million?

AUDIO - OctoMom 911 Calls Released

Brett Singer — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:02:00 GMT

We already know that Nadya Suleman called 911 when she couldn't find one of her kids. Now we can hear it.

"Help me! My son is missing! I'm going crazy! Where's my son? Where's my son?"

(Visit TMZ to hear the call, or listen to it below.)

It's sad to listen to. Bizarrely fascinating but sad. Most parents will relate to the first call somewhat -- Nadya thinks her five-year-old is missing. The thing is, she loses it completely, saying, "Oh my God, I'm going to kill myself." She is then admonished by the 911 operator to not say something like that in front of her children. "Keep yourself under control." When the kid comes back, says "mommy," it's heartbreaking.

This woman is a mess.

Then comes the second call. One of Nadya's kids calls 911 and hangs up. The 911 operator calls back, talks to the kid, who claims to be in charge of the home, eventually admitting that a babysitter is there. That part is kind of funny. The operator really earns her keep by getting an adult on the phone who says everything is OK.

The common thread between the two calls is chaos. I'm not a fan of chaos. With kids, it happens. With six kids, it probably happens a lot. With fourteen? Do I need to say it?

Forget "reality show." Actual reality has crept into this story.

A commenter over on MomLogic has a theory that I wish I could say I don't take any stock in but it's hard not to at this point: "The movie 'The Changeling' in which Angelina Jolie has scenes where she is frantically beseeching to get her lost son back opened on October 24. Trailers for the movie must have been all over the networks for days. This 911 call came in on Oct 27. Total coincidence, I am sure."

Oy. Vey.

Source: TMZ

Image: Me and Photoshop

OctoMom Video Blog at RadarOnline

OctoMom Rejects Angels In Waiting Offer

OctoMom Says Denis Beaudoin is Not OctoDad

Gloria Allred Offers To Help OctoMom

OctoMom Says No Dating For Her

OctoMom Loathes Being Pregnant

UPDATE! Octo-Mom Alert! Police Visits and a Child Services Investigation

Octo-Mom Birth Video to Fetch a Cool Million?

OctoMom Video Blog at RadarOnline

Brett Singer — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:00:00 GMT

I don't want to be mean here. I really don't. But I'm starting to feel sorry for Nadya Suleman and her children.

I really think she needs help. I don't mean financial help. Help from a doctor not named Phil.

In a new video blog posted exclusively at RadarOnline, she says "I want to be private." She means that she doesn't want people to know where she lives, because clearly she doesn't want to be, you know, actually private. "Being in the field I'm in, I know there's a lot of emotionally disturbed people in the world…I have trust issues."

She's not worried about anything, she's not overwhelmed. She's hiring help. The other moms are supportive, everything is FINE.

What?

You see her interacting with her children, who don't seem all that happy. The tape feels like an audition reel for a reality show.

Other highlights, in case you can't bear to watch the video:

-   New house, a rental. "I'm doing it myself," meaning no help from anyone. Unclear how it's possible to rent a 2800 square foot house with no job.
-    MSNBC says that the video "shows Suleman struggling to speak as one of her older six kids bites her, pulls her hair and slaps her in the face," but I didn't see anything terribly unusual. I mean, the kids don't look thrilled by the camera and are eventually ushered out of the room (presumably to a very weary grandmother, but you don't see that). Still, the kids' behavior looks like a kid trying to get mommy's attention.
-   This part I will just quote: "Suleman said her older children are already jealous of the octuplets. When a friend showed the kids a picture of their new siblings, 'they hit the picture,' Suleman said." Oy vey.

Also bizarre are her hand-written blog entries. In this one she talks about meeting Dr. Phil. (Because that's really what a mother of 14 should be thinking about.) By not typing her entries for her, Radar clearly wants us to see Nadya's nutty side. (Read the PDF file here.)

It's all fairly disturbing, actually. Hard to look, hard to look away.

Source: MSNBC, RadarOnline

OctoMom Says Denis Beaudoin is Not OctoDad

Gloria Allred Offers To Help OctoMom

OctoMom Says No Dating For Her

Really Wanna Let Octomom Have it? Leave Her Alone

"Angels in Waiting" Apparently Still Waiting

OctoMom Loathes Being Pregnant

OctoMom Rejects Angels In Waiting Offer

Brett Singer — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:05:00 GMT

According to RadarOnline, Nadya OctoMom Suleman has rejected an offer from the group Angels In Waiting to "provide her with a temporary new home for six months."

Angels offer was pretty sweet. According to Radar: "around the clock individualized care by pediatric nurses and other early intervention professionals for her octuplets and their six other siblings." This is in addition to giving them A PLACE TO LIVE. Remember that the house she currently lives in -- her parents' -- is facing foreclosure.

Gloria Allred is all red with frustration -- actually, I don't know if that's true but I wanted to write that. Sorry. We'll learn how she feels later today when the attorney to the weird gives a press conference.

I can understand not accepting help from people for various reasons. In this case, I think Suleman should take what she can get, especially since she's already asking for help from anyone who is willing. So why turn this one down? Is it that she doesn't like Allred? She also seems to be rejecting offers of help from Denis Beaudoin, who said he'd give Nadya some money even if he wasn't the father. Can she really afford to be so, you know, choosy?

Commenter FoxyMoxie (thanks for the tip!) says that Allred will discuss the "'disturbing' phone conversations" she has had with the OctoMom. I mean, will this thing ever end?

Source: RadarOnline

Gloria Allred Offers To Help OctoMom

OctoMom Says No Dating For Her

Really Wanna Let Octomom Have it? Leave Her Alone

"Angels in Waiting" Apparently Still Waiting

OctoMom Loathes Being Pregnant

Brett Singer — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:00:00 GMT

When lawyers represent mostly accident victims, we call them ambulance chasers. What about a shrink who only wants to talk to screwed up people who get lots of media coverage? We need a name for them. Oh wait -- there is one. Dr. Phil.

Yes, the man that Oprah unleashed on the world is at it again. This time he's chatting with Nadya Suleman. You know. The OctoMom! Where ya been, people? This is the only important news story in the world right now. Pay attention.

Here's a little video to whet your appetite:

Doesn't she sound like a delusional 'American Idol' contestant? It's not that you're single. It's that you're single, intentionally had TONS of babies, and have no way to support them. It's irresponsible. How much time could you possibly be spending with any of your kids, the six you already had or the octuplets, if you're always out doing interviews?

This quote was the one that got me:

When Dr. Phil asked her if she was addicted to being pregnant, Nadya responding [sic] saying, no, she absolutely loathes being pregnant and she looked into adoption after her third pregnancy.

She LOATHES being pregnant. So…why do it again? And again? (Reminds me of another Dr. Phil 'patient', Britney Spears -- 'Oops, I did it again / I had 8 more kids…')

And by the way. Of course you loathed being pregnant. You were pregnant with eight babies! That's like carrying around a Humvee in your stomach!

Having never been pregnant, I can safely say that I have no idea how it feels. But many of the women I've spoken to say that they do love it, at least at times. The baby kicking, the life growing inside of you -- that sort of thing.

Since I have no idea, I'll ask the moms out there -- did you "loathe" being pregnant like Nadya?

Source: EverythingOprah

Image: Me

Gloria Allred Offers To Help OctoMom

OctoMom Says No Dating For Her

OctoMom Receives Death Threats

VIDEO-OctoMom And Doctor From Two Years Ago

UPDATE: GMA Snags an Interview with The Octuplet’s Baby Daddy!

Really Wanna Let Octomom Have it? Leave Her Alone

VIDEO-Octo Mom Publicist On GMA

What Octo-Mom Is Spending The Money On

Octuplet Mom Wants TV Career

Playdate: Four Times the Fun Says "I Could Have Been Octomom"

Shannon LC Cate — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:30:00 GMT

Michele, mother of triplets conceived via IVF tells all in her blog "Four Times the Fun." What does "all" include? Michele takes the uninitiated behind the scenes of IVF to discuss how hastily and under what pressure-cooker circumstances decisions are made about the number of embryos get transferred in an IVF procedure. She confesses that given her and her husband's own seat-of-the-pants decision making on transfer day, she might have become the mother of more than triplets, herself. Here's a sneak preview:

"[My husband] looked at me and said, "We're already in to this thing 40 grand and it isn't going to work, and we aren't freezing any again. I'm not shelling out another 5000 bucks to do IVIG on frozen crappy 4 cell embryos."

Then he looked at the doctor and said, "Put them all in. If two are really bad and not going to make it, then we aren't freezing them, so let it play out."

At no point when I was laying on the table with my bladder ready to explode did the doctor say to me, "Guidelines were issued in 1996 by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, with the intent to cut down the number of multiple births, particularly triplets and higher, that can result when many embryos are implanted and more than one takes. Big multiple births can lead to disastrous, life-threatening complications, lifelong disabilities such as cerebral palsy, and crushing medical costs."

No. He said, "Okay. That sounds great. Sorry about the wait. You'll be able to use the bed pan in just a few minutes, Mrs. S."

Michele also casts some helpful light on the subject of fertility specialists and regulation in a post about the ethics of what Nadya Suleman's doctor did. (The post was written before everything was known about Suleman's case, and has some inaccuracies, but her point is unchanged, regardless.)

Perhaps most interesting and useful for those of us who haven't undergone any fertility treatments or the difficult decisions they can entail, Michele's commenters are largely high-order multiple moms themselves, with their own IVF or medicated IUI stories to tell.

All in all, this blog adds a lot to the conversation about fertility medicine and drawing lines about and around it.

See Also:

Eight Babies for the Price of One

Nadya Suleman's Gift to Society: A Cautionary Tale

Really Wanna Let Octomom Have It? Leave Her Alone

Octo-Doc Not the Only One Breaking the Rules

No Great Outpouring of Support for Sudanese Mom of Quintuplets

image: metro.co.uk

OctoMom Says Denis Beaudoin is Not OctoDad

Brett Singer — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:00:00 GMT

So you know that interview with Denis Beaudoin where he claimed to be the OctoDad? Nadya Suleman says that his pants, they are on fire. By that I mean he's lying, according to OctoMom. Suleman's new spokesperson Victor Munoz says that "Denis is definitely not the father."

What nobody is denying is that Denis donated sperm to Suleman on three different occasions. According to OctoPublicist Munoz, Denis twice "gave Suleman a sperm sample at home, which she held between her breasts to keep warm." Then a THIRD time, Denis "was brought to a fertility clinic after Suleman told him she had cancer and they were going to see a doctor." The sperm was placed directly into her womb, there were no embryos created, aaaaand… that's it. I'm done.

OK, one more detail. David Solomon is listed as the father of the oldest of Nadya's first 6 children, and Munoz says that there is one father for all 14 kids. But he won't confirm or deny that said father is Solomon.

Oh, and the hospital might not release the octuplets to Nadya. Seems they're concerned that she won't be able to care for them properly. So she called Dr. Phil. No. Really.

AHHHH!!!!

I'd call this a train wreck, but that's insulting because I kind of like trains. But I have to admit that I'm fascinated because there seem to be more details every other minute. It truly is… the never ending story.

Too much drama. Having kids is dramatic enough. Why include all of this other crap?

Source: ABC News

Image: Me, using Photoshop, using this from Amazon

OctoMom Says No Dating For Her

OctoMom Receives Death Threats

VIDEO-OctoMom And Doctor From Two Years Ago

UPDATE: GMA Snags an Interview with The Octuplet’s Baby Daddy!

Really Wanna Let Octomom Have it? Leave Her Alone

VIDEO-Octo Mom Publicist On GMA

What Octo-Mom Is Spending The Money On

Octuplet Mom Wants TV Career

Octo-Mom Erupts! Video Showdown with Octo-Mom and Her Mother Over Babies

Cole Gamble — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Radaronline.com has this exclusive video of Nadya Suleman and her mom Angela verbally duking it out over Nadya’s multiple baby choice. Angela seems to be thinking pretty much what everyone else is, asking questions such as:

“How are you going to afford this?”

“Why more babies if you already have six beautiful children?”

“Why did you put all the embryos in?”

The fireworks build to a crescendo when Octo-Grandma confesses she feels “sorry” for the eight kids--

Nadya Suleman: Because they are healthy and thriving and crying?

Angela Suleman: No, because there's so many, and how are you going to be able to provide for them?

Nadya Suleman: I have to let go of my need to control everything and I need to accept the help that has been offered.

Angela Suleman: I hope you get help, I really hope so.

Check out the video Here.

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Eight Babies for the Price of One?

Shannon LC Cate — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 01:01:00 GMT

Commenters on my posts about the Suleman octuplet situation and on Madeline Holler's post about the problem of fertility clinics breaking the rules pointed out that a big elephant in the room of this discussion is healthcare, insurance and the cost of fertility treatment in the United States. In countries that more carefully regulate the number of embryos doctors can transfer into women, healthcare is universal and access to at least some fertility treament is covered by it. In the United States, it is rare to find a health insurance policy that covers fertility treatment of any kind, rarer still to find a policy that covers IVF, which can run from $7,000 to $15,000 per try depending on the drugs needed and procedures used.

When couples have double-mortgaged their houses to come up with the cash out of pocket for a round of IVF, it must be awfully tempting to increase their odds by transferring more than one--or two---or three embryos in a single cycle.

Guess what? No one is particularly hoping for high order multiple pregnancies. In fact, research conducted by a well respected fertility center in Maryland found that when cost is not a factor, couples prefer to transfer one or two embryos and that pregnancy rates are not effected significantly by the lower transfer numbers, though multiple birth risk is significantly reduced:

"[This study] showed that patients prefer to transfer one embryo when freed from financial pressures to transfer multiple embryos, which can occur when patients have limited or no insurance to pay for treatment."

When you weigh the costs of care for high order multiples born prematurely against the cost of trying for an extra round or two of IVF, the IVF starts looking like a bargain. So as we enter a national conversation about how to get every U.S. citizen covered with health insurance and what to cover, it would be a good idea to keep fertility treatment in mind. With one in seven couples now seeking some form of treatment to help them conceive, a certain amount of coverage for these treatments needs to be part of the package. What society pays in IVF costs, it will save many times over when those treatments result in healthy singletons, rather than children who need weeks of NICU care and possibly rehabilitation and special care for many years after birth.

Really Wanna Let Octomom Have It? Leave Her Alone

Octo-Doc Not the Only One Breaking the Rules

No Great Outpouring of Support for Sudanese Mom of Quintuplets

Gloria Allred Offers To Help OctoMom

Brett Singer — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:47:00 GMT

Remember Gloria Allred? No? Lucky you.

She's an attorney with a knack for representing clients involved with high-profile cases, such as Amber Frey (Scott Peterson), and the family of Nicole Brown Simpson (O.J.). She also made headlines when she took the controversial stance of questioning Michael Jackson's parenting skills. (That was sarcasm.) She actually went so far as to request that California Child Protective Services investigate how he treats his kids. (That, unfortunately, is true.)

Well, the media-loving lawyer is back and she wants to help out OctoMom Nadya Suleman's kids. MomLogic reports that Allred has a "plan to 'provide for the medical and emotional needs'" of all 14 members of her brood.

Through the charity Angels In Waiting, Allred says that the family can receive the help that they need without relying on public funds, although they will need private donations.

While it's obvious that Allred is a publicity hound (there are other, less polite words one could use, of course), Angels In Waiting seems to be a worthy organization. (Note: I haven't done a lot of research into the group, just a cursory skimming of their web site.) So in theory there is a positive outcome from Allred's actions. Still, why not be a champion for children all the time? Why does it only matter when there's a camera around? The OctoMom story is fascinating, but it's also very sad. The last thing those kids need is someone else trying to get famous off of them.

What do you think – is Allred legit? Or should she, you know, quit? (Apologies for the extremely dated reference.)

Image/Source: MomLogic

OctoMom Receives Death Threats

VIDEO-OctoMom And Doctor From Two Years Ago

Really Wanna Let Octomom Have it? Leave Her Alone

VIDEO-Octo Mom Publicist On GMA

What Octo-Mom Is Spending The Money On

Octuplet Mom Wants TV Career

Nadya Suleman's Gift to Society: A Cautionary Tale

Shannon LC Cate — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:46:00 GMT

After my post last week about why I don't hate Nadya Suleman, quite a few people insisted on the importance of personal responsibility in the blame-game about who bears the responsibility for the octuplet debacle. (Because while I'm as glad as anyone that the babies are all alive and relatively well, "debacle" it is, for so many reasons...)

I'm sticking to my guns and insisting right back that a woman as compromised in decision-making as Nadya Suleman obviously is (for whatever reason or reasons) deserves the help of society in making decisions as major as whether or not to have a high risk pregnancy (which the transfer of 6 embryos invites), let alone whether or not to bring multiple children of fragile health into the world with few resources at her disposal for their care.

Now I am passionately pro-choice. And as a lesbian whose right to be a parent who is constantly volleyed about rhetorically by the forces of the Right and the Left, whose identity as a "real" parent is challenged by people who don't understand adoption, let alone transracial adoption, I am loathe to suggest we drag decisions about who can and can't be a parent into the realm of regulation.

But I do think regulating the creation of high-risk pregnancies and high-needs premature babies is more than reasonable: it's a moral imperative. I am not talking about disallowing assisted reproductive technologies, to which dear friends of mine owe their own beloved children. I am talking about applying reasonable standards of care that still allow for individual variations of risk and health.

In Wednesday's edition of The Week, Tish Durkin discusses this very idea by comparing the situation of Suleman's fertility specialist to the situation of similar doctors in a European context:

"Come on, guys. In Belgium, a doctor who [transfers] more than one embryo in a woman of Suleman's age and fertility-treatment track record is breaking the law. In Britain, any doctor who transfers more than three embryos into any woman for any reason is very likely to lose his license. In the U.S., Dr. Michael Kamrava [transfered six embryos into Suleman] —two of which later became twins – and the California state medical board promises to investigate whether he has violated the standard of care. If so, it can censure him, but not close his clinic. This is insanity."

I think the Belgium case is probably too extreme and might make conception impossible for a number of women. But I think the British model is closer to just right, allowing for different patient situations that require more or less aggressive treatments while still disallowing the transfer of six embryos on demand--especially the demand of woman with a good fertility track record, six existing children and probable mental instability.

Since so many people have jumped on this case to wag fingers, I challenge you to transform your righteous indignation into a more serious discussion of the real challenges we face as a society in which reproductive technology has taken off to such an extent that it is almost routine. A strictly market-based model for controlling an industry that has the power to bring new people into the world--and quite a bit of influence over the health of those people--is unacceptable. In a culture that constantly claims to put family values first, it is unconscionable.

No Great Outpouring of Support for Sudanese Mom of Quintuplets

image: latimes.com

OctoMom Says No Dating For Her

Brett Singer — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:00:00 GMT

Remember the movie "The Neverending Story"? Nadya Suleman is starring in a real-life version.

Every day, heck, every hour, there a new detail emerges. I have two kids and never have enough time to do the things I need to do. Suleman, with six at home and eight more in the hospital, seems to have plenty of time to do interviews with anyone who wants her. (Maybe we should take Shannon's advice.)

ParentDish reports that the OctoMom told British newspaper The Sun that she will not date anyone until her youngest child turns 18. (Does that mean all eight of the new ones? Or just the kid that came out last? The mind boggles.)

She also said that she "can't remember" the last time she went on a date. Um, Nadya? You've said that you met the father/donor of your numerous offspring at a nightclub. Did that not count as a date? Maybe it was Girls' Night Out. ("Let's go, GNO…" – or should that be GYNO? G'night, ladies and gentlemen.)

So no hanky-panky for OctoMom for the next 18 years, adding to the 8 years that she has already done without. I guess The Bachlorette will have to look elsewhere for their next star.

Her reasoning is equally bizarre. "Boyfriends? I think I'd have to be extremely selfish. I cannot maintain a social life and be a mother. To even take one percent of every night and devote it to someone else, a stranger, would be wrong. I have to wait for that until my youngest have left school."

Is there a point when a journalist is going to ask Nadya about the charges leveled against her by, you know, her own mom and dad? That whole "she doesn't take care of the six kids she already has" thing? I guess not.

Source: ParentDish

Image

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YouTube Octomom Parody: Hilarious or Heartless?

Kate Tuttle — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:01:00 GMT

Or maybe a bit of both. From someone billing herself as Venetian Princess comes a video introducing two female rappers, T-Bag and Miss Lil' Dingle (and yes, they are horrible MCs, and yes, it borders on offensive), going to town on Nadya Suleman, aka Octomom. From its first lines -- "I ain't babysittin!" -- this parody based on T-Pain's "Shorty Got Low" is a guilty pleasure at its guiltiest. Is it fair? Is it nice? Is it a good facsimile of hip hop? No, but it's really kind of funny. You be the judge:

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Really Wanna Let Octomom Have it? Leave Her Alone

Shannon LC Cate — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:03:00 GMT

Recently, a certain celebrity gossip website said about Nadya Suleman, "that bitch is off the rails."

It was my final straw. Because yes, I agree, I'm no psychiatrist and I've never met the woman, but the attention-seeking single-mother-by-design of fourteen--including eight octuplets--is probably "off the rails." What I don't understand is why some people choose to react to her probable mental illness with name-calling like "bitch."

Well, I do realize it sells tabloids and/or generates blog hits or reflects already reflected light--however unflattering--on the writer. But commenters in threads following stories about her are filled with vitriol too. Nastiness flies like cold germs at a Chucky Cheese in January. And now it's an epidemic. Suddenly, we are all supposed to love to hate Nadya.

I just don't get it.

Here's why I don't hate Nadya:

1. I don't know her. I have no idea if she's truly an awful person, a misguided sweet person or a seriously ill person so out of touch with reality that it's impossible to judge her.

2. There is no way to actually get to know her. Magazine stories and television interviews and press conferences designed by a professional publicist are not going to tell me any more about her. It's all spin. Spin she's probably only partly controlling and even then, how the heck do I know what's truth or fiction or why she even wants it spun a particular way?

3. There are so many other forces to hate. There's the fertility industry and its unregulated ways. There's an unethical doctor out there who, apparently does this sort of thing with some frequency. There's the publicist who took the job of spinning Nadya. Nadya's idea to hire her? Probably. But again with the crazy. The publicist didn't have to agree to take the job. She could have said, "honey, you don't need a publicist, you need anti-psychotics." But there is money to be made in public train wrecks, isn't there? And let's not forget to hate the ridiculous romantic claptrap about motherhood that encourages women to view themselves as saints or goddesses just by virtue of having a vagina that once squeezed out a child or fourteen.

4. Finally, I have to say that all the poison cast towards Nadya Suleman reminds me uncomfortably of the same viciousness cast towards mothers who don't meet ever narrower, ever shifting culturally normative standards for all kinds of other reasons. Can't anyone else see that the judgement hurled at Suleman is just a stone's throw from the judgement hurled at any single mother, regardless of how she came by her children? Got pregnant the old-fashioned way? She's a slut. Used a sperm donor and hired a nanny? She's a selfish old maid. Needs some public assistance? She's a leech on the taxpayer. Self-supporting? She's a workaholic. And those judgements are yet another stone's throw from the ones that plague other mothers. Stay at home? You're a door mat, a bore and a bad example to your daughters. Work for money and use daycare? Why'd you bother to have kids if you didn't plan to raise them? Used fertility treatment? Obviously the good lord didn't want you to be a mother and you went against nature. Adopted? You stole a baby from its real mother to serve your own desires.

Do any of these sound familiar? And before you say "sure, but the one that sounds familiar to me is not fair, whereas Suleman really deserves our criticism," I say, it's all the same thing. It's the same big, tired, old argument that mothers are responsible for everything bad about children, families, society. It's the flip side of that saint/goddess nonsense.

We'd be doing ourselves a favor to quit judging women we don't even know for situations we have no real access to--especially when those mothers are clearly compromised in some serious ways that are not within their control. Whether it be mental illness, poverty or legal injustice that compromises them. If we'd not be judged ourselves, we ought to shut up about others too.

And if you really, really want to keep hating Nadya, nothing could hurt her more than letting her story die quietly so that the people who are really close to her can turn their attention to getting her the help she--and her 14 kids--really need (hint: it's NOT a t.v. show).

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OctoMom Receives Death Threats

Brett Singer — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:00:00 GMT

I'm no fan of Nadya "OctoMom" Suleman, the OctoDoc, and I particularly dislike her publicists.

But death threats?

According to ETOnline (and every other news outlet on the planet, because there is NOTHING ELSE HAPPENING IN THE WORLD), OctoMom and her kids have gone into hiding because of "several hostile telephone and email messages." The octuplets are still in the hospital.

Publicist Michael Furtney actually uses the term "undisclosed location" when describing where Suleman is. We don't like him.

Bottom line: I think that people who send a threatening emails or makes hostile phone calls to Nadya, or anyone else, are reprehensible and should be arrested (assuming those threats are illegal; I'm not a lawyer, although I have played one on TV, sort of – long story). At the same time, I imagine Suleman could have cut down on the number of hateful messages she is receiving by not doing national television interviews. Setting up a web site didn't help either. Just a thought.

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Octuplet Mom Launches Donation Website

SunnyChanel — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:10:00 GMT

What do you do when you have fourteen mouths to feed, mounting hospital bills and no income? You start a website! Nadya Suleman, the mom of the uber famous octuplets, has just launched a donation portal to assist her and her extremely large brood.

Generally when families have liter sized deliveries, oodles of corporations, local businesses and the people down the street step forward to basically sponsor the babies with gifts of diapers, formula, toys and cash. But Nadya has gotten pert near nada. Is it the economy or is it because she has, as she states, an “unconventional family”. Corporations have steered clear of associating their brands with such a controversial figure. Bill Handel, a conservative radio talk show host, even called for a boycott of any companies that stepped in to help the family.

Seeing that the consumer companies haven’t come calling (except a donation from Prince Lionheart and a diaper company that remains unnamed), Nadya is taking matters into her own hands. Someone on her behalf, has started the Nadya Suleman Family website. The one page site features photos of each octuplet, a baby bottle, blocks, hearts and hey, even a rainbow.

Suleman is reportedly $50,000 in debt, has no real income and has an ungodly amount of hospital bills and living expenses. There has been much criticism of who will be paying for hospital bills and upbringing. Fellow citizens have voiced their anger over the idea that the fiscal responsibility will fall onto the state of California, with tax payers footing the bill. Maybe just maybe, that burden will be offset by an appeal directly to the people.

If you feel so inclined, you can send a check or make a paypal donation here.

Do you think taking her financial plight to the people is tacky or tasteful?

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UPDATE on Sneak Peek! The Octuplet Mom Interview

SunnyChanel — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:02:00 GMT

Earlier it was announced that Ann Curry scored the motherlode - in the form of the first interview with the mother of the infamous octuplets. Now we have some of the juicy details. The interview has already been recorded and was conducted on Thursday shortly after the mother, Nadya Suleman, was released from the hospital. We are now getting answers to some of the big questions like why she in the hell did she want such a ridiculously large family? The reason? She was lonely.

Suleman is an only child and apparently always yearned for a great bit brood of kids. Nadya told Ann Curry “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…”

The mother is currently single (she is divorced) and had tried to get pregnant for quite a while before a baby, or two, or three, or eight, stuck.

“I went through about seven years of trying, through artificial insemination, through medication. And all of which was unsuccessful. And then the first IVF procedure from that facility — it was successful. And then I just kept going in,” Suleman told Curry. Someone should have told her that it was a fertility clinic not a Starbucks.

The exclusive interview airs on the Today show on Monday Feb. 9th (time enough to get all the teaser ads out for the airing). A teaser will be on the Today show on Friday Feb. 6th.

UPDATE:
Part of Ann Curry’s interview with Suleman was aired on Friday morning. Here are a some other notable tidbits from the one on one:

• In regards to the issues involved in carrying eight children she said she totally was aware of the risks and that… “Those are my children, and that’s what was available,” she said. “It’s a gamble.”

• At the hospital, she is holding each infant for 45 minutes each day.

• She had six embryos implanted/transferred and that two of them turned out to be twins.

• “I know I'll be able to afford them when I'm done with my schooling,” she added: “If I was just sitting down watching TV and not being as determined as I am to succeed and provide a better future for my children, I believe that would be considered, to a certain degree, selfish.”

• “I'm providing myself to my children. I'm loving them unconditionally, accepting them unconditionally,” she told Curry. “Everything I do, I'll stop my life for them and be present with them. And hold them. And be with them. And how many parents do that? I'm sure there are many that do, but many don't. And that's unfortunate. That is selfish.”
Selfish or not? What do you think?

Source: Today Show

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Pulling the Plug on Plural Pregnancies

JeanneSager — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:31:00 GMT

The birth this week of octuplets was amazing not just to the world at large but to the doctors who'd been tracking the pregnancy. Could that mean multiple pregancies have gotten out of hand?

It's what some OB/GYNs are saying - that perhaps it's time to reduce the chances a woman will get pregnant with multiples.

The risks of carrying multiples have proven to be higher for both mom and baby. There are higher rates of fetal loss and premature births, which make for increased chances of medical problems down the road for the kids. It also makes it rough for fertility experts - who make it their mission to help their patients have a healthy baby. Because the point - as any parent knows - isn't just to get pregnant.

The key seems to be in melding the missions of both parents' and physicians' - and that might mean a reduction in the growing trend of multiple births. Dr. Zev Rosenwaks, director of the Ronald O. Perelman and Claudia Cohen Center for Reproductive Medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital and Weill-Cornell Medical Center told the Daily News this week that his doctors are opting to implant fewer embryos in women's uteruses - if all of them "take," there will still be a smaller number of babies living off of the mother and higher chances of successful pregnancies.

It's a practice that's begun more common around the world. In September, the British Fertility Society and the Association of Clinical Embryologists issued new guidelines for clinicians in the UK, pushing for clinics to reduce multiple pregnancy rates from an average of twenty-four percent to ten percent over the next three years. UK docs have also been banned from implanting any more than two embryos in the uterus of women over forty.

The question is whose choice it should be?

With fewer embryos implanted, also upped is the chance that these embryos won't become fetuses and that a mother will have to go through the process all over again. Fertility drugs have also been blamed for the increase in multiples (the new mom of eight and her doctors have remained mum on whether she took fertility drugs), but without them, many couples would lose their chance to become parents.

Should doctors be focused on scaling back these multiples - or should that rest in the hands of the patient?

Image: BBC

No Great Outpouring of Support for Struggling New Mom of Quintuplets

Shannon LC Cate — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:01:00 GMT

When Adwai Malual found she was pregnant with multiple babies, she wasn't clear how it would effect her. A first-time mother at 28 years old, she didn't fully realize what one baby required, let alone the quintuplets she was carrying.

After coming from Sudan to the United States to receive a blessing on her pregnancy from her mother-in-law (who was living in the U.S.), Malual developed serious complications and was hospitalized and unable to return home. Her babies, now six weeks old, are healthy and doing well, but for some monitoring for breathing issues. But Malual is on her own.

Her husband works in a government position in Sudan and has not been able to leave work and has not yet seen his five babies except in photos. Meanwhile, Malual is stuck in Laurel, Maryland with her mother temporarily visiting to help her. But she has little other support.

No diaper companies sent truck loads of products, no formula maker sent gallons of assistance, as sometimes happens in these kinds of cases.

A local church has helped with some hand-me-down baby clothes and two cribs. But 12 hours a day, Malual does nothing but attend to her babies until her mother takes over for a few hours so she can sleep. When her mother leaves, she doesn't know what she will do.
Sudan is a war-torn country and she would prefer to raise her children in the United States. But she would have to apply for sanctuary, be approved, find childcare and a job that covered the cost of it plus living expenses for six. Whether she makes it home to Sudan or somehow makes life work in the U.S., for now, Malual needs all the help she can get.

A chaplain from the hospital where the babies were born is collecting donations for her. For information on how you can help, see the chaplain's name and address at the end of the story linked here.

For more photos of the beautiful babies, see the Washington Post's photo gallery.