Her side of the story

In the spring of 2008, Nadya Suleman was leading what most people would call, at the very least, a challenging life.

Nadya Suleman: I was receiving disability and student loans.  And that's basically, what we were living on.  Yeah.

Ann Curry: And you're in college.

Nadya Suleman: Yes.

Ann Curry: And -  and you have six children.

Nadya Suleman: Uh-huh.

Ann Curry: And -  and  do you ha -  do you feel as though you're able to take care of these children?  You're feeling confident?

Nadya Suleman: It felt as though I could.  Yes, yes.  It was a struggle. 

In graduate school, Nadya says she would take them to the university's daycare. They all lived in a home her mother owned.

Nadya Suleman: I was very fortunate for my mom to allow us to -  live in her house.  Even though I was paying her rent.  You know, it wasn't necessarily as much as she probably could've got if - if strangers lived there.  She adores her grandchildren. She did it for them.

Ann Curry: But it - it just seems like there -  there -  there wasn't a lot of money -

Nadya Suleman: No, no there wasn't.

Ann Curry: And there were a lot of kids already.

Nadya Suleman: Already.  Absolutely.  That's why that it's -  that's why people just don't accept it.  The majority of people do not accept my choices. 

One choice in particular: to undergo more cycles of in vitro fertilization.  She still had frozen embryos left over from her last treatment.

Nadya Suleman: I couldn't live with the fact that if I had never used them, I -  I'll be 70 years old and regret the fact that I didn't allow these little embryos to live. Or give them an opportunity to grow.

Ann Curry: Why wasn't disposing of the em -  embryos an option?

Nadya Suleman: Oh, boy. (laugh) Now we're gonna get into a really -  controversial topic.  And -  I believe all children are -  are blessings from God. And to allocate that rule to a doctor -  to -  to dispose of a life is uncomprehensible to me. 

Ann Curry: Did you use the same fertility specialists for all of your pregnancies?

Nadya Suleman: Yes.

Ann Curry: So, your fertility specialist knew that you already had six children?

Nadya Suleman: Yes.  Uh-huh.

Ann Curry: And so, you know, when he knew that you wanted another child, a seventh child, what was his response?

Nadya Suleman: It's -  it's a subject of choice.  You know, he knew , we both laughed.  He knew I wanted a huge family.  And he's, like, "You want another one?  Twins again?"  I'm like, "Then I'm done.  Then I'm done."  So, he didn't judge me. Very professional.

Nadya says her first two tries at IVF were unsuccessful. Then, in June of 2008, just a month shy of her 33rd birthday, she tried a third time with the last embryos she had left, hoping, she says, for just one more child.

Ann Curry: How many embryos were you implanted with?

Nadya Suleman: The same as with the others.  Six.

That number shocked many fertility experts, which has only added to the controversy surrounding Nadya.

Dr. Mark Sauer: I personally would never do that in a 33-year-old in our center at Columbia that would be a major incident.

Dr. Mark Sauer is a professor of reproductive endocrinology at Columbia university. He says for a woman Nadya's age, the doctor should transfer only two or three embryos.

Dr. Mark Sauer: My best guess is that there was a flagrant violation of the, you know, professional standard of how many embryos to transfer in a young woman.  The reason for that, I don't know.

The California medical board says it will investigate whether the standard of care was violated in Nadya's case. In 2006, los angeles TV station KTLA did a story on a local fertility doctor, Michael Kamrava, and interviewed his patient, Nadya Suleman.

Nadya Suleman: It was a miracle. It happened right away. It worked the very first time.

Though Nadya claims the same doctor did all her IVF procedures, her mother disputes that. Today, we asked her to clear things up. She says her mother is mistaken.

New Nadya interview

unequivically  - I went to the same physician where I was comfortable and the same thing was done. This was just a completely different outcome

Dr. Kamrava declined out request for an interview.

Nadya says her doctor routinely transferred about six embyros  because of her troubled medical history, which she says lowered the odds that any embryos would survive.. And that's what she  says happened in the procedure that led to the octuplets.

Ann Curry: You didn't want just one or two embryos?

Nadya Suleman: Of course not.  I wanted them all transferred.  Those are my -  those are my children.  And that's what was available.  And I used 'em.  So, I took a risk.  It's a gamble.  It always is.

Ann Curry: Did he explain to you the risks of a multiple birth.  Had he -

Nadya Suleman: Oh, with all of them.  Absolutely.  With all of them.  It's not much different this time.

Ann Curry: So, you're saying you were fully informed -

Nadya Suleman: Uh-huh.

Ann Curry: - that there was a possibility of a high-multiple pregnancy.  Although, you didn't think it was likely.

Nadya Suleman: No.

Nadya Suleman: The statistics on that?  .00000001 percent.

She says she never expected the news she got a few weeks later.

Ann Curry: Tell me that moment.  I'm trying to understand what that -  must've been like to be a woman lying on the table.  You're -  you're belly is growing.  You know it's bigger than it should be.

Nadya Suleman: But it -  it was.  I was actually -  nine days.  And I started showing.

Ann Curry: Nine days?

Nadya Suleman: At nine days.  Uh-huh.  Nine -

So, then I went in for pre-natal care very early.  And -  they did an exam.  My uterus appeared to be looking like about three months along.  Or four months along. And I was only about a month.  And then he checked.  And he was, like, "Oh, yeah, how many did you have transferred?"  And I told him.  And he's like, "Yeah, yeah.  They're -  "  (laugh) he was like casual, the doctor. "They're all there." 

The sheer number of them created profound risks for their health  - and Nadya's. At this point some doctors recommend "selective reduction" of the fetuses. Nadya wouldn't hear of it.

Nadya Suleman: You know, what it gives any human being a right to -  to pick and choose which embryo -  which fetus is more valuable than another.  You know, that's is not up to human beings.

Ann Curry: Not an option?

Nadya Suleman: Absolutely not.  (laugh)

She wanted the babies -  all of them.

Ann Curry: What was in your heart?

Nadya Suleman: I -

Ann Curry: What was in your mind?

Nadya Suleman: I embraced it fully.  I embraced it. 

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