Octomom


 * “Octomom”**

“Octomom” is the nickname given to Nadya Suleman, who gained an enormous amount of media attention after giving birth to a set of octuplets in January 2009. She is the second woman in the world to successfully give birth to a set of octuplets (first being Nigerian-born American, Nkem Chukwu, in 1998), and the first in which all eight babies have survived (Bowe, 2009). In Nkem Chukwu’s case, one of the octuplets ended up passing away a week later (Bowe, 2009).

Nadya Suleman was born in 1975 in Fullerton, California. Her mother was a high school teacher and her father was a restaurateur/realtor (Celizic, 2009). She was an only child and described her family as “dysfunctional”, having lived with her mother with whom she had an emotionally distant connection (Celizic, 2009). This lack of familial connection growing up would later spur her desire to have a very large family in the future.
 * Early Life**[[image:nadya_suleman_pregnant_picture.jpg width="299" height="173" align="right" caption="Nadya Suleman, "Octomom", pregnant with her octuplets (Octomomma.com, 2009)"]]

Suleman began work in 1997 as a psychiatric technician at a California state mental hospital (Celizic, 2009). She worked there until 1999 when she suffered a back injury during a riot at the facility (Celizic, 2009). Suleman decided to enroll to college and was able to graduate from Cal State Fullerton in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in child and adolescent development (Garrison et al., 2009). She had planned to continue her education and pursue a master’s degree in counseling but stopped her schooling in spring 2008 around the time she became pregnant with the octuplets (Garrison et al., 2009). At the time of the birth of her octuplets, Suleman had no job and no real major source of income outside of food stamps and disability payments (Celizic, 2009).
 * Education and Work**

Suleman married Marcos Guttierrez in 1996, and their marriage officially lasted until 2008, but the two had separated in 2000 and eventually filed for divorce in 2006 (Powers, 2009). The reason behind the separation stemmed mainly from their inability to conceive children together (Powers, 2009).
 * Marriage**

Suleman had various health problems that would make it difficult for her to become pregnant normally; and thus, the only way she would be able to have children would be through in vitro fertilization (Celizic, 2009). She had taken her job as a psychiatric technician in 1997 as a way to help pay for in vitro procedures (Celizic, 2009). Her back injury from work in 1999 would allow her to receive a steady flow of disability payments, $165,000 in total over the last seven years (Celizic, 2009). Suleman would have her first successful in vitro pregnancy in 2001 thanks to sperm donation from a friend, sperm that would be used for all of her future pregnancies (Sherwell et al., 2009). She would successfully have five more children through in vitro in the seven years following the birth of her first child (Sherwell et al., 2009). In 2008, Suleman tried again for another in vitro treatment in hopes of having one last baby girl (Celizic, 2009). Suleman had six embryos left and wanted all of them implanted at the same time (Celizic, 2009). Her doctor, Dr. Michael M. Kamrava, agreed to do so despite the fact that women generally of Suleman’s age in their 30s should not have more than three embryos implanted at once (Celizic, 2009). All six of the embryos were successful with two of them splitting into twins; and despite being advised to abort some of the fetuses, Suleman refused and eventually gave birth to all eight babies in January 2009 (Celizic, 2009).
 * Pregnancie**[[image:octomom-with-kids.jpg width="280" height="283" align="left" caption="Nadya Suleman, "Octomom", with her 14 children (Hollywoodheadaches, 2010)"]]**s**

Suleman’s successful birth of octuplets and their survival automatically pushed her into the spotlight as a public figure in the media. The birth of the octuplets was originally seen as a “medical miracle” (Sherwell et al., 2009). However, public opinion began to turn sour once they found out more about her background and the medical procedures that were undertaken in order to get her pregnant. Public backlash spurred from the fact that Suleman was unemployed, living off welfare, and already had six other children (Sherwell et al., 2009). People felt that she was not someone who could successfully provide for all fourteen of her children given these circumstances. Other public backlash stemmed from a medical standpoint and an ethical debate over Suleman’s doctor’s agreement to implant all six embryos despite the fact that Suleman was a woman under 35 (Sherwell et al., 2009). As of 2009, Dr. Kamrava’s been expelled from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and faces possible revocation of his medical license for his decisions in the in vitro fertilization procedures he conducted with Suleman that spurred the birth of the octuplets (Duke, 2010). Controversy even sprang up about Suleman’s external appearances. Rumors spread that she had spent money on undergoing plastic surgery and likened her appearance to that of famous actress, Angelina Jolie (Sherwell et al., 2009). Two weeks following the successful birth of her octuplets, Suleman began to appear everywhere in the media. She first appeared on an NBC interview with Ann Curry followed by an appearance on the //Dr. Phil Show// (Bowe, 2009). Suleman reached a deal with RadarOnline that would allow them to film inside her house and publish exclusive stories (Bowe, 2009). Suleman’s mother gave an exclusive interview to //US Weekly// and her father made a guest appearance on //The Oprah Winfrey Show// to detail the family environment that Suleman had grown up in as a child (Bowe, 2009). British company, Eyeworks, offered Suleman a quarter of a million dollars to film her family for eleven days in what would become a documentary entitled, “OctoMom: Me & My Fourteen Kids” (Bowe, 2009). Thousands of websites (hate sites, gossip sites, etc.) focusing on Suleman sprouted up seemingly overnight, and Suleman became a widely stalked figure by the paparazzi (Bowe, 2009). She was even offered a million dollars to appear in a pornographic movie (Bowe, 2009). As of January 2011, Suleman’s behavior and parenting ability has come under fire again when celebrity-gossip website, TMZ, posted controversial photos of Suleman engaging in baby-whipping fetish photos with another man (TMZ Staff, 2011).
 * Media Figure**


 * References**

Bowe, J. (2009, November 15). Octo-Mom In Production. //New York Times//. Retrieved from Academic One File database.

Celizic, M. (2009, February 11). //Octuplets' mom: 'I'm not being selfish'//. Retrieved April 10, 2011, from MSNBC website: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/29135612

Duke, A. (2010, October 18). //Octuplet mom's doctor faces license revocation hearing//. Retrieved April 10, 2011, from CNN website: http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/celebrity.news.gossip/10/18/octuplets.doctor.hearing/

Garrison, J., & Yoshino, K. (2009, January 31). Octuplets' mom was hoping for 'just one more girl', grandmother says. //Los Angeles Times//. Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/31/local/me-octuplets31

//Nadya Suleman Pregnant Picture// [Photograph]. (2009, March 3). Retrieved from http://www.octomomma.com/wpcontent/uploads/2009/03/nadya_suleman_pregnant_picture.jpg

//Octomom with Kids// [Photograph]. (2010, April 20). Retrieved from http://hollywoodheadaches.pmpblogs.com/files/2010/04/octomom-with-kids.jpg

Powers, L. (2009, March 3). Octuplet Mom's Ex: We Split Because We Couldn't Have Kids. //US Weekly//. Retrieved from http://www.dailyfill.com/Octopussys-Ex-Hubby-Dodged-Eight-Bullets-15614/

Sherwell, P., & Hedley, C. (2009, February 7). //'All I wanted was children'//. Retrieved April 10, 2011, from Telegraph Media Group website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/4550615/All-I-wanted-was-children.html

TMZ Staff. (2011, January 19). //Octomom - The Baby-Whipping Fetish Photos//. Retrieved April 10, 2011, from TMZ website: http://www.tmz.com/2011/01/19/octomom-nadya-suleman-baby-fetish-video-photos-whip-sexy-porn/