LOS ANGELES - THE California woman who gave birth to octuplets last week in a case that triggered an outcry amongst medical officials and the public was discharged from hospital on Thursday, officials said.

A spokesman at the Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center said Nadya Suleman, 33, left hospital early on Thursday. Her eight babies - six boys and two girls - are expected to remain in hospital for several more weeks.

Meanwhile, Ms Suleman has sold her story exclusively to the NBC television network, who are expected to broadcast an interview in the coming days, her publicist Michael Furtney said.

Ms Suleman's case sparked anger from fertility experts and the public after it emerged her multiple births came after eight of her own previously frozen embryos were implanted. Ms Suleman already had six children under the age of eight, also reportedly conceived by in-vitro fertilization (IVF).

Under guidelines issued by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), a woman Suleman's age should have no more than two embryos implanted.

Harish Sehdev, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Pennsylvania Hospital, called the decision to implant eight embryos in a woman who already has six children 'insensitive and ignorant.' Bellflower hospital officials said on Thursday Ms Suleman's eight babies were doing well and were breathing naturally.

The babies, delivered on Jan 26 by Caesarian section, are now the longest surviving octuplets in the world. -- AFP