The mother of a California woman who gave birth to octuplets initially wanted to give birth to "just one more" because she already had six young children.

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"And look what happened. Octuplets. Dear God," Angela Suleman said Friday, four days after her daughter became the second person in the United States ever to give birth to eight babies at once.

Nadya Suleman, 33, of Bellflower, Calif., already had six children, including 2-year-old twins when she decided last year to have embryos fertilized by a sperm donor transferred into her uterus, KTLA-TV, Los Angeles, reported.

Nadya Suleman, who is divorced and lives with her mother, is "not evil, but she is obsessed with having children," her mother said, noting "Obviously she overdid herself."

Fertility experts have questioned the ethics of implanting so many embryos, said M. Sara Rosenthal, bioethicist at the University of Kentucky's College of Medicine.

"This is an outrageous situation that should not happen," Rosenthal said, noting the babies face lifelong learning disabilities.

As of Friday, seven of the babies were breathing on their own and one was receiving oxygen through a nose tube, said hospital officials at Kaiser Permanente in Bellflower.