In her first official interview since giving birth to eight babies late last month, Nadya Suleman opened up about her life’s dream of having a “huge family” and her struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts before and after her first child was born.

The media has been all over the case of the 33-year-old single mother of six, who delivered eight more babies last week. Nadya Suleman finally sat down with NBC’s Ann Curry and spoke about her lonely childhood, her life and desire to become a mother.

In the excerpts from the interview, which was recorded Thursday in New York by NBC News, Suleman, who is portrayed as an outgoing woman with many friends, a former cheerleader who enjoyed writing and reading, said growing up as an only child in a “protected and sheltered” home environment, craving for a sibling, made her desire a “large family, a huge family.”

Longing for certain connections and attachments with another person, it became clear to her she wanted to become a mother in her late teens, and tried to conceive for seven years but was unsuccessful having suffered three miscarriages. She tried artificial insemination and fertility drugs, to no avail.

On top of her inability to bear children, she also suffered serious back injury in a riot in 1999 at the state mental hospital where she worked, which launched her into a deep state of depression during which she told a psychiatrist that she had suicidal thoughts, and wouldn’t get up from bed for days. The 2000 breakup of her marriage to Marcos Gutierrez, whom she had wed in 1996, only added more to her depression. The couple split in 2000 but only divorced last year.

The doctors’ reports were included in more than 300 pages of documents released to The Associated Press by the state Division of Workers’ Compensation on the same day NBC released excerpts of Suleman’s first interview, scheduled to air next Monday and Tuesday on NBC's “Today” and “Dateline” programs.

Eventually, after years of failed attempts, Suleman turned to in-vitro fertilization and her first procedure was successful. She became pregnant and gave birth to her first child in 2001. She told a doctor who conducted a psychological evaluation for a workers' compensation claim that the first birth was “the most wonderful, best thing that's ever happened in my life,” although she continued to experience mood swings.

Currently living with her parents and unemployed, Suleman just kept going for the upcoming years giving birth to five more children, including a set of twins. She also went back to school and earned a bachelor's degree in child development and began pursuing a master's degree in counseling at California State University at Fullerton.

However, six children were not enough for Suleman, who decided she wanted just one more girl.
While for women under age 35 conceiving through in vitro fertilization, in which eggs and sperm are combined in a dish, physicians normally implant no more than two of the resulting embryos at a time, Suleman was implanted with eight.

After carrying the babies for 31 weeks, she delivered the babies on January 26 but surprises kept coming when instead of having seven babies, she gave birth to eight. The newborns, still hospitalized, are currently in good condition. Although it was rumored that Suleman would be selling her story for a big price, NBC says she was not paid for the exclusive.