WASHINGTON — The father of week-old septuplets wants only prayers from well-wishers. But a parent of another famous set of seven gave this advice: don't turn away help.
Gifts of diapers, toys and clothes already have arrived at Georgetown University Hospital, where Fahad Al Qahtani's wife and seven tiny children are. The five boys and two girls weighed about 2 pounds each and are expected to stay in the hospital eight weeks.
Al Qahtani politely asked this week for the donations to stop. The college graduate student said that he would pass on gifts to the hospital.
"I would appreciate all the generosity to continue in your thoughts and prayers, and that my family will continue to grow as a healthy and happy one," he said in a statement.
Bobbi McCaughey, mother of the world's first living septuplets born in Iowa in 1997, told the new parents to "accept whatever help is offered."
"You're going to have your hands full, and now isn't the time for polite refusals," McCaughey wrote in her online journal.
She also advised the couple to ignore strangers who "don't think women should have 'litters,' " take plenty of pictures, spend time alone away from the seven and take care of their own health.
The 28-year-old new mother had a Caesarean section last Thursday. Two of the Al Qahtani babies remain on ventilators to help them breathe. All were in the neonatal intensive care unit and were being fed some of their mother's milk.
The medical bills are expected to reach $1 million. The family is from Saudi Arabia, which has promised to cover medical costs. All but one of the babies are named for members of the Saudi royal family. The girls are Haifa and Shaima. The boys are Bandar, Abdullah, Sultan, Naif and Abdulaziz.
Nail Al-Jubeir, a spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington, said the father has "made it clear they are not in need and anything given should go to those who are less fortunate."
The family plans to eventually return to Saudi Arabia and "they will be taken care of, the Saudi people are very generous," the spokesman said.
The McCaughey septuplets received a house, 15-passenger van, cash, a life supply of diapers, seven college scholarships, apple juice for 16 years, and other gifts. Oprah Winfrey hosted the babies' first birthday party. The family also wrote a book, "Seven From Heaven."
The Al Qahtani family, meanwhile, has shunned publicity. There have been no photographs and the mother's name has not been released. Al-Jubeir said the family "just wants to have a quiet life." They have been in America about three years.
The hospital had set up an account for donations, and about $4,500 was given in the 24 hours after the birth. "Your thoughtfulness is overwhelming," the father, a 29-year-old high school teacher studying for a master's degree at George Washington University, said in the statement.
The only other known surviving septuplets were born in 1998 to another Saudi Arabian couple. Those babies spent eight months in the hospital — six more months than necessary — because of the parents' fears about the cost of raising them. That couple also named their children for Saudi royals and received more than $200,000 from leaders to pay for nannies.
Al Qahtani and his wife already have a 9-year-old son. They decided to use fertility drugs after losing two young children who were waiting for organ transplants, the father told The Washington Post. Some women with multiple conceptions halt development of one or more of the fetuses in order to give the others a better chance of survival. Doctors have said the mother is Muslim and did not consider that.
Dr. Warren Rosenfeld, chairman of pediatrics at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., said the parents will need manpower help. The babies need to be fed every three hours and each feeding takes about 30 minutes, he said.
"As soon as they get home, the reality will hit very, very quickly," he said.
About 60 volunteers worked in shifts to care for the Iowa seven, dealing with an estimated 280 bottle feedings and 120 diaper changes a week.