Octuplets Mom Has 6 Other Kids
Doctors say the octuplets born Monday outside Los Angeles are doing well.
But when they go home, it will be to a truly full house.
CBS News has learned the mother who gave birth to the octuplets has six other children.
An acquaintance who didn't want to be identified told Early Show national correspondent Hattie Kauffman the mom has four older boys and two girls.
"She is young," the acquaintance says, "fairly young. She has six children already. And in those six children, she has a set of twins."
While the hospital where the octuplets were born, Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center in Bellflower, Calif., some 17 miles southeast of L.A., hasn't confirmed that the mom used fertility drugs, there are no documented cases of naturally conceived octuplets, Kauffman points out.
Doctors say the babies are all breathing on their own. But all weigh less than four pounds and are expected to remain in the hospital for weeks.
The woman and her children live on a cul-de-sac with her parents.
A man who came to the door of the family home confirmed to Kauffman that he's the grandfather of the octuplets, but refused to speak to her.
"From what you know about this family, and this household, do you think they'll be able to support 14 kids?" Kauffman asked the acquaintance.
"Well," she responded, "so far, they've been fine with the six they have. Fourteen I don't know."
Kauffman says the neighborhood has homes with just two or three bedrooms.
It will, Kauffman concluded, "be tight!"