SakshiThe Last Straw
Nadya Suleman pressed the issue with her husband. She really wanted to have kids, and if they couldn’t make any the traditional way, they’d have to settle for an alternative method – at least, that’s how Nadya saw it. Her husband didn’t agree. Their different feelings on the matter was starting to drive them apart. The last straw for Marcos came when Nadya suggested the method of in vitro fertilization (IVF), a procedure through which an egg is fertilized outside of the body, usually in a test tube. If she were to go through with it, Marcos warned, he would leave her.
An Impossible Decision
The experience left Nadya Suleman with an impossible decision – stuck in the middle of a tug of war between her love for her husband and her lifelong dream of having kids. Would she stay with her husband and risk never having the kind of family she dreamed of? Ultimately, she decided to take the risk and run with her calling. It was far from easy, but Nadya ended her relationship with former husband Marcos Gutierrez in 2000 and decided to pursue having kids through IVF. She was excited to finally get the process going, but things didn’t exactly go as planned for the newly divorced Nadya.
Nothing Comes Free
In vitro fertilization isn’t a particularly complicated process, but despite becoming increasingly popular, it doesn’t have a 100 percent success rate. Another reason it hasn’t yet been widely adopted by the general public? It’s a particularly expensive operation. None of these things phased Nadya Suleman, who had already grown tired of failure. Medical experts usually recommend including several eggs during IVF in case some of them don’t succeed during the fertilization process. Because of that, the procedure involved another risk, one that would turn out to be particularly relevant to Nadya Suleman’s case. Would she be willing to take it?
Worth The Risk
The other factor for Nadya Suleman to consider before deciding to run with IVF was one that had the ability to totally change her life. In placing multiple eggs in the mother’s uterus, IVF opens the possibility that more than one egg could make it through the fertilization process, meaning the mother could end up giving birth to more than one baby. The prospect didn’t phase Nadya one bit. Her motto, it would seem, was “the more, the merrier.” But some might argue that perhaps the possibility of having multiple children should have scared her at least a little. At this point, had no idea what was about to come.
Welcome, Baby Elijah!
The potential to become pregnant with more than one child isn’t always considered a risk – for someone who is hoping for twins or triplets, for example, it can be a useful tool. Nadya Suleman wasn’t necessarily expecting anything like that, but the results of her IVF procedure were truly astonishing. And they’d lead her down a rabbit hole from which she’d struggle to escape. The operation was successful and in 2001, Nadya had her first child, an adorable boy named Elijah. Finally, after years of struggle, her dream of becoming a mother became a reality! But that wasn’t it for Nadya.
Babies, Babies, Babies!
A year after her first child was born, Nadya Suleman had a daughter named Amerah. The IVF worked so well, and Nadya’s thirst for having babies wasn’t yet quenched. She had such a positive experience with it that, after some time passed, she decided to continue the treatments, eventually ending up with fraternal twins and two more children – that’s six in total! Now, for many people in developed countries, six kids is more than enough – emphasis on the “more than.” But somehow even then, Nadya felt that she wanted more a while after her sixth child. What she would do next would baffle millions.