Why Octomom Natalie Suleman Was “the Poster Person for Mommy Shaming”

For Natalie Suleman, eight would have been enough. 

Frankly, the single child born to Lithuanian teacher Angela Suleman and Palestianian restaurant owner Edward Suleman would have been happy with seven. 

So, two years after now-18-year-old twins Caleb and Calyssa joined older siblings Elijah, 23, Amerah, 22, Joshua, 21, and Aidan, 19, the graduate student booked an appointment to see Dr. Michael Kamrava, the fertility doctor that helped her conceive her eldest six children through in vitro fertilization. 

“I went back to have one more,” Suleman explained in an exclusive interview with E! News. “Based on my past reproductive history, he’s always transferred in five to six embryos.” With the exception of her twins, she noted, the process usually resulted in “singletons.” 

As planned, Kamrava implanted the six embroyos—left over from the procedure she’d undergone to have her twins. “My uterus started to heavily contract,” Suleman detailed, “and according to the doctor, they all were expelled.” Though she was “heavily sedated,” she continued, “He asked me if he could transfer in the other six that were in the petri dish.”