Nadya Suleman told TV host "Dr. Phil" McGraw on Tuesday that she fears Kaiser Permanente Medical Center may not release her octuplets to her until she proves she can care for them.
In an interview with The Times, McGraw said Suleman called him Tuesday afternoon, distressed after talking to Kaiser officials. Suleman has taped two episodes of McGraw's show, the first of which is scheduled to run today.
"What she is telling me is that unless and until she has a better living arrangement, that they are not likely to release the children to her," McGraw said.
Suleman, a single mother who already has six children and gave birth to octuplets Jan. 26, lives in Whittier with her mother in a three-bedroom house that is in pre-foreclosure. Suleman has no job and relies on government assistance, including food stamps and disability income for three of her six older children.
McGraw said she told him that hospital officials had some concerns about her "ability to care for the children." He did not have detailed information about their concerns or what standards she might not be meeting.
"I haven't talked to the hospital; I haven't talked to the caseworkers," he said.
Kaiser officials declined to comment on Suleman's case.
"Any conversations that the mother may or may not have had on this topic are private and we could not discuss them," Jim Anderson, director of media relations for Kaiser Permanente Southern California, said in a statement to The Times.
"In general, mothers with multiple births who have babies in the neonatal intensive care unit are given advice and counsel about what they need to have in place to care for the children when they are discharged. There is a multidisciplinary team that works with them in advance to offer advice and support."
The octuplets were born two months early, weighing 1.5 to 3.3 pounds each. They are all breathing on their own and in stable condition.
What physicians call late pre-term babies are those born after 34 to 36 weeks of gestation rather than the normal full term of 38 to 42 weeks. Typically, Kaiser does not discharge premature babies until they have reached at least 35 weeks of pre- and post-birth development, said Vicki Bermudez, a regulatory policy specialist with California Nurses Assn. and a neonatal intensive care unit nurse at the Kaiser hospital in Roseville.
