Sherry Stanley's List: Essay Three

• This article discusses the limits of human kindness. most people have less sympathy for people that they percieve created their own problems. - Sherry Stanley on 2009-02-27

• Many of these babies don't survive their first year, succumbing to hypothermia,  respiratory problems, electrolyte imbalances, anemia, hemorrhaging, poor  absorption of nutrients or infections.

• A study published in JAMA in 2005 followed over 200 ELBW babies  until age 8 and found 14 percent to have cerebral palsy; 21 percent to have  asthma; 10 percent to have vision worse than 20/200; nearly 40 percent to have  an IQ lower than 85, which approaches a mental deficiency; and nearly 50 percent  with poor motor skills.
• higher rates of attention deficit disorders, brain abnormalities, hearing loss  and chronic diseases
• greater risk of developing diabetes and high blood pressure due to worsening  glucose intolerance from birth.
• average a 17 percent reduction in the size of their posterior corpus callosum,  that part of the brain that connects the left and right hemispheres.

  • Could support opposing view - problems not totally related to multiple birth - also related to Mother's stats. race, age, etc.

• ELBW and VLBW are on the rise as a result in part of infertility  treatments and multiple births. Yet other, poorly understood factors are at  play, such as a mother's race, age and general health.
• A 2007 study in Pediatrics estimates that nearly $6 billion is spent  annually on low-birth-weight deliveries, with an average ELBW birth costing  $65,600.

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• jobless, divorced mother of six living in her own mother's three-bedroom house  when she gave birth January 26 to octuplets conceived through in vitro  fertilization.
• single "friend" was the sperm donor for all her children.
• unless and until she has a better living arrangement, that they are not likely  to release the children to her," the Times quoted McGraw as saying.
• He added that according to Suleman, hospital authorities had some concerns about  her "ability to care for the children

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• Reuter.UK - Already concern from hospital that mother may not be able to care for her 14 children - Sherry Stanley on 2009-02-28

• Nadya Suleman is planning to buy  a  home  worth more than a million as her current residence is facing foreclosure.  
  
  
• owned by Suleman's mother Angela, is facing a 10 month outstanding mortgage.

• Octuplet mom house in forclosure. wants to buy new house (with what)? - Sherry Stanley on 2009-02-28

• When we see something like this in the general fertility world, it gives us the  heebie-jeebies,"
• "if a medical practitioner had anything to do with it, there's some degree of  inappropriate medical therapy there."
  
• higher-order multiple births (defined as three or more babies born together)
• breathing problems and brain injuries that may cause permanent disability.  Problems in premature babies, including learning disabilities or cognitive  delays, are often not apparent until years after their births.
  
• The American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the American College
• There aren't any laws or legal ramifications to it."
  
• fertility doctors are asked to adhere to strict guidelines that limit the number  of embryos transferred.
• A more likely scenario is that the mother of the octuplets received infertility  drugs in a procedure called controlled ovarian hyperstimulation
• If patients choose to proceed with the treatment -- even facing the potential of  a large number of eggs being released -- they can later abort some of the  embryos if a higher-order pregnancy occurs. Many patients dislike this practice,  called selective reduction, said Dr. Harold Henry, director of maternal-fetal  medicine at Kaiser Permanente. Some have religious or ethical objections to  aborting any of the fetuses; others don't want to risk losing the entire  pregnancy.
  
• such births consume enormous financial resources for hospitals, health insurers  and families.
  
• respiratory distress, infection and damage to their other organs, particularly  the brain and gut. Premature infants have a higher rate of death in the first  month of life than babies born full-term. Later, these babies are at higher risk  for developmental problems and cerebral palsy.
  

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• But, her mother says, "You should have considered your six other children." Of  the newborns, the grandmother adds, "I feel sorry for them."
  
  

• octo Mom's Mom - tells her she feels sorry for her other 6 children - Sherry Stanley on 2009-02-28

• Sperm donor wants DNA test, thinks octuplets are his. He was tricked donating sperm as she told him she had ovarian cancer - Sherry Stanley on 2009-02-28

• Video from today show with octo mom - she claims she is not on welfare, plans to go back to school and for master degree and will then be able to support her children - Sherry Stanley on 2009-02-28

• Video of Bill Orielly bebating with defense laywer about Octo mom. - Sherry Stanley on 2009-02-28

• In an interview with NBC, Suleman said she receives $490 a  month in food stamps and, for three of her children, Social Security disability  payments. She received disability payments for a work injury from 2000 through  2008.

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  Nadya Suleman, the woman who gave birth to octuplets  last month, is receiving $490 a month in food stamps, and three of her first six  children are disabled and receiving federal assistance, her publicist confirmed  to The Times.

   

  Publicist Michael Furtney confirmed the information after two sources told  The Times that Suleman was receiving food stamps and federal supplemental  security income.

   

  Suleman had told NBC News correspondent Ann Curry in an interview that she  was not receiving welfare. Furtney said Suleman didn't consider the food stamps  and SSI to be welfare.

   

  “In Nadya’s view, the money that she gets from the food stamp program ... and  the resources disabilities payments she gets for her three children are not  welfare," he said. "They are part of programs designed to help people with need,  and she does not see that as welfare."

• american journal of pub health
  impact of increase in multple births - Sherry Stanley on 2009-02-28