Octuplets' mom fires free nanny training service

[March 24, 2009]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Nadya Suleman, mother of octuplets, has fired a nonprofit group of nurses that helped care for her children, accusing the group of spying on her and reporting her to child welfare officials, her spokesman said Monday.

Suleman attorney Jeff Czech said the relationship started badly between Suleman and Angels in Waiting, which has been training nannies paid by Suleman at the family's La Habra home.

Last month an attorney for Angels in Waiting filed a complaint against Suleman with child welfare officials, seeking an investigation into whether the mother could provide a suitable environment for her 14 children.

Suleman later had several confrontations with the nurses, Czech said, and the situation grew unbearable Sunday when Suleman came to believe that Angels in Waiting founder Linda West-Conforti was allegedly filing a report against her with child welfare officials.

"It started out adversarial and never really resolved itself," Czech told The Associated Press. "Nadya felt that she was being judged wrongfully and she didn't need it. All it did was make a difficult situation worse."

Czech did not detail the complaint and lawyer Gloria Allred, who represents the nurses' group, refused comment Monday, saying more details will be released Tuesday.

A call to the Orange County Department of Children and Family Services was not immediately returned, but child welfare cases are typically kept private to protect the identities of the children involved.

Angels in Waiting had initially offered to provide around-the-clock care, to be paid for by public donations, but later scaled back its offer to only provide training to Suleman's nannies. Suleman has said the offer was changed because the group wasn't receiving donations, but Allred has denied that claim.

Czech said that Suleman will have her nannies trained by nurses from the Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center, where the octuplets were born on Jan. 26. Kaiser spokesman Jim Anderson said the hospital sends out home health nurses to provide training and guidance to new mothers, and at least two such visits have been made to the Suleman home. Anderson said he was not sure how much the program costs.

Four of the octuplets are home from the hospital, and Suleman has six other children.

[Associated Press; By SHAYA TAYEFE MOHAJER]

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