Prayerful Octuplets’ Mother Goes Home

HOUSTON —  The mother of the Houston octuplets--still physically weak but vigorous in her faith--left the hospital Wednesday, saying that her desire to have the babies had far overshadowed her painful pregnancy.

Flanked by her husband and mother, 27-year-old Nkem Chukwu smiled confidently from a wheelchair and told a roomful of reporters at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital: “I was so thankful to God because that was what I wished for . . . . I wanted to have as many [children] as God wants to give me.” Chukwu also thanked her doctors, nurses and the many individuals and businesses that have made donations to her family.

The smallest and frailest of the babies, Odera, died Sunday. The other seven, still listed in critical but stable condition at Texas Children’s Hospital, continue to make progress and have as much as a 92% chance of survival, pediatrician Patti Savrick said. If all goes well, they could join their mother at home within three months.

Four of the infants were breathing on their own Wednesday, while three needed help from ventilators. Two of the babies began drinking their mother’s milk for the first time Tuesday. The others were being fed intravenously.

“We’re feeling better and better about the babies as each day goes on,” Savrick said. “We’re taking it a day at a time.”

Chukwu said she plans to visit her babies as often as possible. “I am not complete without them. When I visited the babies this morning, I prayed for them and told them that they were all looking great and that I would be back to see them very soon.”

The Nigerian-born Chukwu, who spent the last weeks of her pregnancy nearly upside down in order to relieve pressure on her cervix, said, “It wasn’t easy, but I did it for the love I have for them.”

She delivered the first baby vaginally on Dec. 8. The other seven were born by caesarean section on Dec. 20. “I knew one day it would be over. I would be able to cuddle and love them,” she said.

Early on in her pregnancy, doctors had suggested aborting some of the fetuses, but, Chukwu said, “I didn’t have ‘selective reduction’ in my Bible, so that’s why I didn’t do it.” Chukwu, who had been given fertility drugs, declined to address the debate over whether doctors should try to prevent such multiple births.

Standing beside her, her husband, Iyke Louis Udobi, admitted that “I haven’t gotten over the shock.”

The 41-year-old respiratory therapist said that, although the family was focused now on the babies’ health, help would be needed with items such as a car and a house big enough to accommodate seven children. Companies already have donated baby products, food and other goods and services.

Standing on Chukwu’s other side during the press conference was her mother, Janet Chukwu. Udobi faces a court date Feb. 8 in connection with a September quarrel in which he allegedly hit his mother-in-law with a chair and was charged with misdemeanor assault.

Asked whether the case was concerning them, Nkem Chukwu simply ignored the question, straightening her back and lifting her chin upward.

“No, we’re not,” Udobi said, wheeling his wife toward the door.