Not long after Nadya Suleman gave birth to her 8 children, controversy raged left and right. In case you have not heard, it seems that the birth of the octuplets has garnered mixed reactions. Some congratulate the mom for having so many kids while others have criticized the decision to have multiple babies at the same time. You see, this is not the mom’s first birth and the conceiving of the babies was done artificially – meaning that the number of the children was somehow under the doctor’s control.
Anyhow, with the mother and the children all still in the hospital, reports are coming out that they are being “inundated” with offers for books, sponsorships, and of course, TV shows. Newsday has this story:
Hundreds of requests have been made since Nadya Suleman gave birth to six boys and two girls a week ago, said Joann Killeen, president of Killeen Furtney Group, a public relations company. But Suleman, who remained hospitalized with her children yesterday at Kaiser Permanente’s Bellflower Medical Center in Bellflower, Calif., hasn’t decided what she’ll do next, Killeen said. Some of the deals and requests for interviews involve offers to pay, said Killeen and her partner, Mike Furtney. They didn’t reveal amounts being offered. Suleman, a 33-year-old single mother, already had six children, ages 2 to 7, when she gave birth to her octuplets on Jan. 26.
Interestingly enough, AP ran a completely different story a day before:
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.
So which is which? Are we going to see Nadya and her babes on TV soon?