On January 26 2009 octuplets that the country called amazing were born. But what was more amazing was the story of the woman behind the decision to have them.
Nadya Suleman seemed to come onto the scene out of nowhere. It is usually amazing when a family has a large multiple birth but this story intrigued the media because of the story of the mother more than the number of children. Suleman had six children already when she decided to go for one last procedure an IVF treatment to implant the remaining eight embryos which were in storage from the multiple treatments she had before.
In the documentary Octomom: The Incredible Unseen Footage which aired on Fox August 18th 2009, Nadya states that she didn’t know this kind of media attention would be given her when her children were born but the documentary seems to come to another conclusion. As the film progresses from the night her first two babies were brought home from the hospital Suleman reveals her need for children is born out of a need for love in her own childhood. Many people hate Nadya Suleman because of this statement and by the time this documentary aired the general public already knew much of what it was about. What the public didn’t know was that this documentary had already been planned since before the babies were born which was quite shocking given that throughout the process it was claimed by Suleman and those around her that deals were being made but nothing was decided.
However cover was blown by the end of the documentary that not only was most of the footage given to press outlets for publicity while they were shooting it but that it actually started shooting while the babies were being born in the hospital. The last few moments of the documentary footage are the moments of birth which is shot by the same camera operator as the rest of the post-birth footage.
Not only did she do this for family attention but she did it for media attention and started setting this deal in motion before they were born. The film seems to also center around how surprised Nadya is at the attention. The attention she was talking about went far beyond the media that were present both within and without the house. In the opening scenes of the film Nadya is greeted at her home by a vast crowd of media but intermixed with the crowd were fans. People without cameras or any reason to be there except an obsession with fame and those who have it.
In the middle of the film Nadya looks through the letters she has kept from well-wishers right after the babies were born. How else would the people all over the country know where to send the letters so soon after if she did not have a publicity firm behind her? She also admits to having a trademark on the name Octomom but claims that she didn’t make the name up for herself. The only thing incredible about this unseen footage is how close the media and public were when they described Nadya as attention seeking and in it for publicity.
