LOS ANGELES - The Southern California mother of octuplets who already had six other children says she's done having babies.

In an NBC "Dateline" interview aired Tuesday night, 33-year-old Nadya Suleman says the octuplets were a sign from God that she should stop having children.

Suleman also says she dreams of going back to her old life, before she had the octuplets on January 26 and endured a firestorm of criticism and media frenzy.

Divorced and unemployed, Suleman told anchor Ann Curry that she still intends to go back to school and finish her master's degree.

Suleman says she'll support her children with student loans until she can find a job as a counsellor after graduating in a year or two.