Octuplets' mom gets TV, book offers to tell story

[February 03, 2009]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The mother of the world's longest-living octuplets is being deluged with offers for book deals, TV shows and other business proposals, but has not decided what she might do other than care for her children, her newly hired spokeswoman said Monday.

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.

"She's the most sought after mom in the world right now," Killeen said. "Everyone wants to talk to her."

But Suleman, who remained hospitalized with her children Monday at Kaiser Permanente's Bellflower Medical Center, 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 the amounts being offered, but Killeen noted that raising eight babies will be expensive, adding that Suleman plans to carefully review her financial opportunities.

"Right now her top priority is to be the best mom she can be to all her children," she said. "She's hired us to manage all of those opportunities."

The spokeswoman discounted some published reports that Suleman had already decided to host a television show on parenting. But she added that Suleman does want to eventually tell her story to the world.

"As soon as she's able, she will tell her story, and it's an amazing story," she said.

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.

Her babies continue to grow stronger, the hospital said in a statement Monday. It wasn't immediately known when the octuplets or their mother would be released from the hospital. At the time of the births, doctors said the babies would stay about two months.

"This has been a very good week for the babies. It is always satisfying to be able to see a baby that was born premature continue to get stronger every day," said Dr. Mandhir Gupta, a neonatologist at the hospital.

In seven other documented octuplet births, at least one of the babies died within a week. The world's first live octuplets, born in 1967 in Mexico City, all died within 14 hours.

The first set of U.S. octuplets was born to Nkem Chukwu of Texas on Dec. 20, 1998. A week later, the tiniest infant died of heart and lung failure. The surviving seven siblings celebrated their 10th birthday in December.

Suleman retained the Killeen Furtney Group to represent her last Friday. Furtney said the company, which normally handles corporate clients and crisis public relations, was referred to her by the hospital. Its clients include the Union Pacific Railroad and the California State Parks Department.

Suleman's mother told The Associated Press last week that her daughter has always loved children and had wanted to be a mother since her teens.

Suleman had all 14 of her children through in vitro fertilization, according to her mother, Angela Suleman, who is caring for the other six while her daughter is hospitalized.

[Associated Press; By JOHN ROGERS]

Associated Press writer Shaya Tayefe Mohajer contributed to this story.

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