Nadya Suleman became a global phenomenon when she gave birth to octuplets in January 2009. This came complete with the tabloid moniker, Octomom.
It was as if she were suddenly the 8th natural wonder of the world. But I did not join the maddening crowd in marveling at her fecundity. Instead, I stood back and marveled at the outpouring of generosity, which gave the impression that everyone in America wanted to play doting godparents to her children.
In fact, it’s an indication of my stupefaction that my only blog reference to Suleman was in the form of an admonition to newly elected President Barack Obama. I made it as follows in “Is Obama’s Familiarity Breeding Contempt…?” March 25, 2009:
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Evidently, researchers have determined that President Obama has made more media appearances at this point in his presidency than any of his predecessors.
In fact, some critics can be forgiven the impression that he’s doing more to compete with the likes of the “Octomom” and Lindsay Lohan for media coverage than to fix the ailing US economy.
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The point is that, given the windfall Suleman enjoyed, it came as no surprise that other women expected similar benefits after similar pregnancies. And, sure enough, many of them hit the jackpot.
But this woman was clearly hell-bent on taking the cake.
A claim that South African woman Gosiame Sithole gave birth to 10 babies earlier this month is not true, an official inquiry has found. No hospitals in Gauteng province have a record of decuplets being born, the provincial government says.
Medical tests show that Ms Sithole had not even been pregnant recently, it said. The 37-year-old is now being held under the mental health act for observation and will be provided with support.
The statement did not elaborate on the reasons behind the fabrication of the story.
(BBC, June 23, 2021)
Reasons? I suppose this could be a case of pseudocyesis (aka phantom pregnancy). But I suspect it’s more likely the case of seeking the fame and fortune that come with giving birth to quintuplets or more.
For example, Malian Halima Cissé gave birth to the nonuplets in Morocco just last month. And her husband has been all over all media ever since expressing his joy.
But the joy, it seems, is not so much for God blessing him with these nine children as it is for so many people donating funds to help him care for them. This even included the president of Mali pledging the government’s support.
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