The octuplet controversy continues...

I find this interesting and nothing more. Many people have passed judgement on this woman when they don't fully understand her story or have not gone through infertility themselves. I just don't feel like it's my place to do that. While I can't say I totally agree with each and every decision that was made (at least from what I've heard), I also know that we never imagined we would so quickly be planning to do IVF, with such a fervent passion.

It wasn't all that long ago when my husband made the comment "if we ever have to put your body through all of that, then we'll just not have kids". Ok, I shouldn't have put that in quotes because I don't remember if that's exactly what was said, but it was something very similar. And, at the time, I wasn't terribly upset by that. We weren't trying to have children then, and while we have always wanted and planned my our life so that we would be able to provide a good life for our kids, it seemed like the upright thing to say. I mean, we loved each other and knew that we will always be happy regardless of what happened or didn't happen in our life. While that statement still stands true, the day came when we just "knew" deep down that we wanted to share our life with another life - and more than one at that!

What I'm getting at is that you never really know how you will feel and what you'll do in a situation until you are in that situation. We certainly didn't know that when the overwhelming feeling of love came over us that we'd be ready and more than willing to make our life a somewhat chaotic whirlwind in order to be able to afford IVF treatments - let alone willing to undergo the physical stress of putting our bodies through such an adventure, but we're definitely here now. I'm sure that there was something that the mother to new octuplets, Nadya Suleman, felt that most of us won't be able to understand. I'm ok with not knowing what that is and trusting that she is capable of listening to her heart and will do her best to be a wonderful mom for her children.

Infertility Procedures
Technically speaking, I was curious as to what infertility procedures she underwent in the past and what she recently had done that helped her become a mother. I came across an interview from the Today Show that stated her infertility history looks something like this:

Attempting to become pregnant with her sixth, and last child, (she said she didn't want to die knowing she had embryos waiting to become life) she tried two rounds of IVF which were unsuccessful. In June of 2008, her third try, they transferred the last embryos remaining - a total of six. While most people are shocked by this, as the average transferred is typically 1 or 2, a higher number isn't uncommon. Age, embryo quality and failed attempts are all large factors in how many a doctor will transfer. The thought is that sometimes, because of all the various factors that a person faces, they actually need a higher probability of success - in this case that means increasing the odds by transferring more in the hopes that one will implant and grow into a viable pregnancy. For the record, six is also the same amount that they transferred on her two previous unsuccessful tries. The biggest concern here is that because she is only 33, that it isn't "acceptable" for a doctor to transfer that many. That I am certainly no expert on so I will leave it to them to debate. Of course, many are up in arms about who will be paying for these children, but I'd rather not go there. This is an infertility blog :-)

Who knows - maybe one of those babies will grow up to be something truly amazing. You just never know! They're here now and I wish them all the best.

If you're interested in hearing more of the Today show interviews, here are a couple videos on her recent infertility story.

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