Like many couples, my husband and I have tried to have children for a while now. We have not done in-vitro fertilization, because of the cost, but we may try. However, it's been really hard to see the coverage of the mother
who had six children already and has just had octuplets after another visit to a fertility doctor and IVF treatment.
The woman's name, mother's name and details about her life have been made public; why has there been no mention of the doctor or clinic that was involved? Especially since most doctors who have been interviewed have said that they would never implant eight embryos, for ethical and health reasons.
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I just sent this link to a friend, who has very strong opinions on IVF protocols. I'm hoping she'll come on and post.
One has to wonder why? Why this mother was OK with having so many babies at once? And then when we find out she's a single mother of 6 children already. You really can't help but wonder why.
Well, this morning I got a little bit more insight. I caught just a glimpse of the upcoming interview with the mother and Ann on Mondays, NBC's Today show.
The mother talks about her childhood and having no one. She talks about how lonely she felt. That's all I caught, but it was enough to intrigue me to want to watch Monday's show. I really want to understand more about her. Why she chose to bring 8 more children into a household with a family of 7, already?
It's not my place to judge and I'm not. It does make me think however, as a women's health care advocate, maybe we should have something on our site that helps women assess decisions like this before making them??
Would that be helpful information for us to have on EmpowHer?
If there were a site like EmpowHer, when I was sick - a place where I could have assessed the pros and cons of my hysterctomy, talked to other women and had experts to help explain things to me - I probably would not have had the surgery.
Thoughts??
Best in health,
February 6, 2009 - 2:15pmM
This Comment
Personally, I think this story is crazy. Whatever clinic allowed 8 embryos to be placed in this woman needs serious supervision. I'm hoping that this will cause some industry-wide rules or standards to be put into place. This should absolutely not be allowed. Women aren't even built to carry twins, let alone 8 babies. We're meant to have one baby at a time. When multiples are involved, you have all kinds of risks involved that people rarely know about. In this woman's situation, I find it hard to believe that her mom or someone close to her didn't try to stop her or get her in counseling. I really feel for her six kids who now most likely will not get any attention from her at all.
February 5, 2009 - 5:08pmThis Comment