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Thursday, Dec. 31, 1998

How does mother of octuplets feel? `Great!'

Upon release from hospital, Nigerian-born Houston woman says she feels blessed with 8 infants

By PAULINE ARRILLAGA
Associated Press

   HOUSTON - Weak but radiant with pride, the mother of the Houston octuplets went home from the hospital Wednesday, saying the pain and fear of her pregnancy gave way to wonder and gratitude the moment she gazed upon her eight babies.
   "When I saw them for the first time, I was so amazed at what God blessed me with," Nkem Chukwu, speaking publicly for the first time since the births, said before leaving St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital. "They are unique."
   The 27-year-old Nigerian-born woman was wheeled out after visiting her seven surviving children, who remained hospitalized in critical but stable condition. If all goes well, they could join their mother at home in two to three months.
   "I told them they're all looking great," she said. "I touched them and I prayed for them, and I told them that I'll be coming to see them." Chukwu said she plans to visit them every day because "I'm not complete now without them."
   Wearing street clothes and makeup, Chukwu spoke with reporters accompanied by her husband, Iyke Louis Udobi, and her mother.
   Asked how she felt, Chukwu smiled and said, "Great!"
   Chukwu said her faith in God and the love she felt for her unborn children were what carried her through the pregnancy.
   She spent three grueling months in the hospital, confined to bed and fed intravenously much of the time to make more room for the babies. In the final 2 weeks, she lay almost upside-down to relieve pressure on her abdomen, and suffered nosebleeds because of it.
   "It wasn't easy, but I did it for the love I have for them," said Chukwu, who delivered the first of the babies Dec. 8 and the remaining seven by Caesarean section on Dec. 20. "I knew one day it would be over. I would be able to cuddle and love them."
   Even when the tiniest baby, Odera, died Sunday, Chukwu said her faith never wavered. God, she said, "brought her and he took her."
   Chukwu, who had been given fertility drugs, declined to address the debate about whether doctors should try to prevent such multiple births. However, she said she never considered aborting some of the fetuses to give the others a better chance at survival.
   "I wasn't even going to give it a second thought," she said.
   Four were breathing on their own Wednesday, while three needed help from ventilators. Two of the babies had been given their mother's breast milk for the first time Tuesday. The others were being fed intravenously.
   Plenty of aid already is pouring in. As with the septuplets of Carlisle, Iowa, born last year, companies have donated baby products, food and other goods and services.
   

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  © 1998 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.