Illustration copyright Getty

Bearing and raising even one child is quite a labor-intensive task. However, historical documents claim that a certain woman gave birth to as many as 69 children. Is this true? And will modern medicine be able to expand women's reproductive capabilities? The correspondent is looking for answers to these questions

If the British tabloid press had existed in the 18th century, the story of the family of Russian peasant Fyodor Vasiliev would have caused a frenzy of excitement.

What's the matter? It is believed that Vasiliev’s first wife, whose name has not been preserved by history, holds the world record for the number of children born.

According to a message sent to Moscow by the monks of the St. Nicholas Monastery, between 1725 and 1765, Vasilyeva managed to give birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven times to give birth to triplets, and four times to quadruples.

She gave birth, respectively, 27 times, for a total of 69 children.

One can only wonder how a modern newspaper editor would react to such prolificity, especially given the uproar surrounding mother of octuplets Nadia Suleman (nicknamed "Octomom" and giving birth to 14 children) and the British Radford family (their 17 children were the subject of a TV documentary).

So, is it actually possible to have more than 60 children?

A woman could theoretically mother more children than we ever thought possible

"Something from the realm of fantasy. Just imagine, 69 children? Come on!" - says James Segars, director of the Division of Research in Reproduction and Women's Health at Johns Hopkins University.

I decided to take a closer look at this surprising (and, at first glance, dubious) statement by consulting with reproduction experts.

I was hoping to find out what the physical limits were on the number of children a woman could bear naturally.

Along the way, it was discovered that thanks to the achievements of modern science, a woman could theoretically become a mother to more children than we ever thought possible.

Illustration copyright Getty Image caption In Britain, only 1.5% of pregnancies are twins, and the probability of triplets is only 0.0003% of cases.

First, let's look at the mathematical part of the Vasilievs' story. Is it possible to have 27 pregnancies in the 40 years we are talking about?

At first, this doesn't seem counterintuitive - especially since triplets and quadruplets are usually born earlier.

It turns out that in total Vasilyeva was pregnant for 18 years

Let's make some rough calculations: 16 twins at 37 weeks; seven triplets at 32 weeks; four quadruplets of 30 weeks. It turns out that in total Vasilyeva was pregnant for 18 years out of 40. She had a craving for salty food - and so on for a couple of decades.

Another question is whether this is possible in reality.

First of all, it is necessary to understand whether a woman is able to maintain constant readiness for childbearing over such a long period.

Typically, women have their first period around the age of 15: every 28 days, their ovaries release an egg—usually one.

Ovulation repeats until the supply of eggs in the ovaries is depleted during menopause, which occurs around age 51.

Illustration copyright Getty Image caption Most women cannot get pregnant after 45 years of age. Is there enough time to have 69 children?

However, a woman’s ability to conceive sharply decreases long before menopause.

"A 45-year-old woman's chance of getting pregnant is about 1% per month," says Valerie Baker, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford University School of Medicine.

A woman's aging leads to a reduction in the number and quality of eggs. During intrauterine development, a girl embryo can have up to seven million immature eggs; by birth, about a million remain.

The ability to become pregnant decreases with each pregnancy, because each subsequent birth takes its toll on the body

An adult woman retains only a few hundred thousand eggs. Of these many cells found inside the follicles, approximately 400 reach maturity and participate in ovulation, providing their carrier with approximately 30 years of potential childbearing.

The last eggs that ovulate late in a woman's reproductive years are at much higher risk of mutations, genetic abnormalities, and other problems associated with aging.

Often, pregnancies involving such atypical eggs end spontaneously.

"Most women are unable to get pregnant after they reach 42-44 years of age," says James Segars. "However, sometimes this happens closer to 50 years of age."

Illustration copyright Getty Image caption At birth, women have only about a million eggs, and their number is constantly decreasing

Moreover, the ability to become pregnant decreases with each pregnancy, because each subsequent birth affects the female reproductive system.

And if Vasilyeva breastfed her children - which is logical for a peasant woman who could not afford wet nurses - ovulation did not occur in her body. This natural method of birth control would further reduce her chances of having 69 pregnancies.

It turns out that Fedor and his wife were very lucky (or perhaps unlucky) that even after she reached 50 years old, she did not have any problems with having new children.

Survive childbirth

And this is not all the difficulties associated with the birth of 69 babies.

Evolution has taken care of slowing down women’s “biological clocks,” because bearing and giving birth to a child is an extremely difficult task, which only becomes more difficult with age.

“The limits must be set by nature,” says Valerie Baker. “Pregnancy is the most stressful process a woman’s body will ever go through.”

Illustration copyright SPL Image caption The birth of multiple twins or triplets can theoretically lead to a large number of children in the family, but the health risks are great

The fact that childbirth is a burden for a woman gives the greatest reason to doubt the veracity of the story about 69 children - especially considering that it happened a couple of centuries ago in the Russian outback.

In developed countries, the availability of modern obstetric care (such as medically determined caesarean sections) has reduced maternal mortality.

In Britain, per 100,000 births, only eight women die from pregnancy-related causes during pregnancy or six weeks after pregnancy. These are the latest statistics from the World Bank.

Meanwhile, in one of the poorest countries on Earth, Sierra Leone, the rate is 1,100 deaths per 100,000 births.

The tendency to have twins is usually hereditary. Perhaps in Vasilyeva it was especially pronounced?

In this regard, the assumption that Fyodor Vasilyev’s wife survived 27 births raises doubts.

"Previously, any pregnancy was a risk to the mother's life," explains Segars. With multiple births (for example, the birth of quadruplets), the risk of serious life-threatening complications increases rapidly.

“Every pregnancy at that time was complex, even if it was just one child,” says Jonathan Tilley of Northeastern University (USA), who is researching the use of oocyte stem cells to treat female infertility and other diseases (read about this below).

A bunch of backbiters

Another aspect that looks implausible in the Vasilievs’ story is the possibility of multiple conceptions of two, three and four children at the same time.

There are two types of multiple pregnancies: either several eggs that leave the ovaries as a result of ovulation are successfully fertilized by sperm (so-called fraternal twins), or one fertilized egg divides into two or more viable embryos, resulting in identical twins with identical genetic code.

Illustration copyright SPL Image caption Modern fertilization technologies make it theoretically possible to have an infinite number of children.

In general, such situations occur extremely rarely. So, in 2012 in Britain, the chance of having twins was only 1.5% of all pregnancies, triplets - an insignificant three ten thousandths of a percent, and four or more babies were born three times out of 778,805 times. This is evidenced by statistics from the Multiple Births Foundation.

Yes, the tendency to give birth to twins can indeed be hereditary, and in the wife of Fyodor Vasilyev it could be especially pronounced.

However, in general, the likelihood that Vasilyeva was somehow able to conceive and survive the birth of at least 16 twins looks microscopic.

“Are there 16 twins alone? I would be very surprised,” Tilly comments.

Another alarming bell in the Vasilievs’ story: it is alleged that 67 of the 69 children born to them survived infancy.

In the 18th century, infant mortality was high even for children born as a result of singleton pregnancies, and reached alarming levels in the case of twins and so on - these children were usually premature and less healthy.

Now surrogate mothers can carry embryos from other parents, which potentially further increases the number of children in the family

"Even if you had quadruplets today, I'm not sure they would all survive," says James Segars.

Finally, it is impossible to believe in the existence of a woman ready for such a life. “Just imagine how stressful it is!” - says Valerie Baker.

Segars echoes her: “You could go crazy! I can’t imagine what it was like to live in this house.”

If, after all, this story is true and not a legend, then the endless need to take care of children could be the decisive reason for the Vasilievs’ divorce, which followed several decades of marriage.

Already an elderly man, Fyodor Vasiliev remarried, and his new wife allegedly gave birth to “only” 18 children. This is about topics for the yellow press.

Brave New World

So what is the actual limit? The answer to this question is not so simple, since the “natural” restrictions that apply to the offspring of an individual woman can now be circumvented.

Firstly, the development of assisted reproductive technologies (ART), which appeared in the late 1970s, led to a surge in the birth rate of twins, triplets, and so on (Nadya Suleman used ART).

Illustration copyright SPL Image caption According to one researcher, there may someday be a way to activate a woman's ability to produce many times more eggs.

Secondly, surrogate mothers can now carry embryos from other parents, which potentially further increases the number of children in the family.

But here's what scientists recently found out: we probably greatly underestimate women's reproductive capabilities.

According to research conducted in recent years, inside women's ovaries there are “oocyte stem cells”, the proper stimulation of which could lead to the creation of an almost infinite number of eggs.

Jonathan Tilley and his colleagues collected information about these cells from creatures ranging from flies to monkeys.

In 2012, they reached the stem cells of human oocytes. As it turned out, they do not contribute to the production of eggs, unlike similar animal cells. For female flies, this is a common way to produce new eggs.

In principle, women could become mothers to hundreds or even thousands of children

Many doctors working in his field express doubts, but Jonathan Tilly is confident: there is a theoretical possibility of activating this mechanism in women.

He hopes to help women whose egg reserves have been depleted, including prematurely, such as due to cancer treatment.

If this hypothetical procedure actually turns out to be possible, the imagination paints the following picture: fertility drugs are used to hyperstimulate the ovaries, causing numerous follicles to simultaneously mature and ovulate.

These many eggs can be surgically removed and fertilized in vitro, and then surgically placed into the wombs of any number of surrogate mothers, whose task is to carry the embryos. Each could potentially give birth to two or more twins.

Illustration copyright SPL Image caption Men are capable of becoming fathers to hundreds of children. What if science gives women this opportunity too?

Thus, from a reproductive point of view, women could move closer to men, becoming mothers to hundreds or even thousands of children - leaving far behind the achievements of Fyodor Vasiliev's wife.

However, Tilly makes it clear that his research in no way suggests that women will be able to have thousands of children. He intends to help eliminate infertility in those diagnosed with infertility.

However, the researcher hopes that scientific advances will help equalize the reproductive capabilities of men and women.

After all, males produce millions of sperm throughout their lives, so the only natural limitation of their offspring is the presence (or absence) of ovulating partners.

When it comes to the idea that restrictions on female fertility might be lifted, everyone starts going crazy Jonathan Tilley

Conqueror (and some say serial rapist) Genghis Khan apparently fathered hundreds of children born across his vast Asian empire some 800 years ago. According to genetics, about 16 million people living today are his descendants.

"Theoretically, men can become fathers until very old age, and if you start early, the situation could develop like Genghis Khan," says Jonathan Tilly.

According to him, “male fertility is actually unlimited,” but if we assume that his research will give the desired result, then “women’s too.”

If such a scenario does come true, the existence of mothers with countless children will create a sensation, perhaps even greater than the 69 Vasiliev children.

The question is: How would the public react to multiple fatherhood? If it's not so violent, is that fair?

“People take unlimited male fertility as a given - everyone knows we can do it,” explains Tilly. “But as soon as it comes to the idea that restrictions on female fertility might be lifted, everyone starts going crazy.”

The researcher believes that the issue needs to be put into perspective and the equality that women have deservedly fought for over the past few decades should also apply to issues of reproduction.

Tilly says this about this: “In fact, there should be no difference between the sexes.”

A woman's purpose is motherhood. And almost all women in the world go through this difficult and at the same time joyful path - the birth of a child. Childbirth is mysterious in itself: suddenly something develops out of nothing in nine months! The mystery of the birth of a new person causes delight or bewilderment.

Here are 10 of the most incredible records in the history of childbirth.

1. The biggest baby in the world

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the heaviest newborn in the world to survive weighed 10.2 kg. This was a boy who was born in 1955 in the city of Aversa, Italy (Aversa). But the largest child that was recorded was born in 1879 and weighed more than 11 kg. Unfortunately, he died literally in the first hour of life.

There are constantly reports of children who weighed about 7 or 8 kg at birth. The largest and heaviest child in Germany, who was born naturally, was born in 2013 in Leipzig. The girl Yaslin weighed 6,110 grams, and her height was 57.5 cm. And in 2011, a boy weighing 6,080 grams was born in Berlin, but Jihad’s height was greater: 59 cm. The longest child in Germany - 62 cm - was born in 2016 year in the south of Hesse.

1. The smallest child in the world

The smallest child in the world was born in Germany, weighing 226 grams and 22 cm tall. Emilia Grabarczyk was born in Witten, West Germany. Her leg was the size of an adult’s fingernail, and it weighed no more than a bell pepper. Nobody believed that she would survive. She was born at 26 weeks in 2016.

Before Emilia, the smallest child in the world was Rumaisa Rahman, born in Chicago at 25 weeks of pregnancy. Rumaysa weighed 244 g and her height was 25 cm.

1. Youngest mother

The earliest pregnancy and earliest birth recorded by doctors was in 1939. The youngest mother was a 5-year-old Peruvian girl, Lina Medina. By the age of 4, her mammary glands were sufficiently developed, and at the age of 5, a characteristic expansion of the pelvic bones was already noted. Cases of such early puberty in girls are extremely rare, but still this fact is not isolated. The boy weighed 2.7 kg and was named Gerardo. To this day, no one knows who the father of this child was. For a long time, Lina’s father was suspected of raping his daughter.

1. Oldest mother

In 2006, Spanish woman María del Carmen Bousada gave birth to twins at almost 67, using the services of the Los Angeles Fertility Center using donor materials.

The oldest IVF mother lives in India, her name is Rajo Devi. For more than 50 years of marriage, she was unable to get pregnant, and by the age of 69 she was mentally and financially mature for the IVF procedure. In 2008, the couple had a healthy daughter.

1. Largest number of children

The largest number of children born to one mother, according to official data, is 69. Between 1725 and 1765, the wife of the Russian peasant Fyodor Vasilyev gave birth 27 times, giving birth to twins 16 times, triplets 7 times and twins 4 times. . Of these, only 2 children died in infancy.

1. Most multiple twins born at one time

33-year-old Nadya Suleman gave birth to eight twins in 2009 - two girls and six boys. All children are alive and well, and this is the only case of octuplets where all survived.

Nine and ten children were also born, but, unfortunately, not all children survived.

The German record is the sextuplets, who were born in 2008 in Berlin (four girls and two boys).

1. Record for time difference between births

Elizabeth Ann Buttle has two children, Belinda and Joseph. The difference between them is 41 years and 185 days. Belinda Battle was born on May 19, 1956, when Elizabeth Ann was 19, and Joseph Battle was born on November 20, 1997, when her mother was 60 years old.

1. Record for speed of childbirth

33-year-old Englishwoman Palak Vyvas gave birth to a daughter weighing 3.5 kg in 2 minutes. This birth was considered the fastest. The waters broke, and after just one push, a healthy girl was born, who was named Vedika.

1. Myselfs long labor

In Ireland, 34-year-old Maria Jones-Elliott gave birth, which was included in the Guinness Book of Records. Their uniqueness lies in the fact that the woman gave birth to two twin girls with an interval of three months (87 days). This is the longest interval between births. Amy was born at 24 weeks and Katie remained in her mother's womb for another three months. Both children are healthy.

1. The shortest gap between births

Jayne Bleackley from New Zealand gave birth to a son on September 3, 1999, and a daughter on March 30, 2000. This happened after 208 days, the girl was simply born prematurely.

The children of Englishwoman Sadie Budden are also only 208 days apart. Six and a half months after she gave birth to son Ronnie, daughter Sienna was born. The girl was born premature at 26 weeks.

10 most incredible records related to the birth of children updated: April 18, 2019 by: Anna Snisar

The largest number of children born to one mother, according to official data, is 69. According to reports made in 1782, between 1725 and 1765. wife of Russian peasant Fyodor Vasiliev gave birth 27 times, producing 16 times twins, 7 times triplets and 4 times 4 twins. Of these, only 2 children died in infancy.

Of our contemporaries, the most prolific mother is considered to be Leontina Albina (or Alvina) from San Antonio, Chile, who in 1943-81. gave birth to 55 children. As a result of her first 5 pregnancies, she gave birth to triplets, all of them male.

Has given birth the most times

She gave birth a record number of times - 38, stated to be Elizabeth Greenhill of Abbots Langley, c. Hertfordshire, UK. She had 39 children - 32 daughters and 7 sons - and died in 1681.

Largest number of multiple births in one family

Maddalena Granata from Italy (b. 1839) gave birth to triplets 15 times.

There is also information about birth on May 29, 1971 in Philadelphia, pcs. Pennsylvania, USA, and in May 1977 in Bagarhat, Bangladesh, 11 twins. In both cases, not a single child survived.

Most fertile pregnancies

Dr. Gennaro Montanino, Rome, Italy, claims to have removed the embryos of 10 girls and 5 boys from the uterus of a 35-year-old woman who was 4 months pregnant in July 1971. This unique case of 15th pregnancy was the result of taking fertility pills.

Geraldine Broadrick gave birth to 9 children - the largest number in one pregnancy - on June 13, 1971 in Sydney, Australia. 5 boys and 4 girls were born: 2 boys were stillborn, and none of the rest lived more than 6 days.

Cases of the birth of 10 twins (2 boys and 8 girls) are known from reports from Spain (1924), China (1936) and Brazil (April 1946).

Highest number of surviving twins

In January 2009, an American woman whose weight ranged from 800 grams. up to 1.4 kg. Six boys and two girls were born at 31 weeks of gestation. By this time, the mother already had six children and had never been married.

All the children survived, and the mother, whom the media dubbed the “octomom,” made her record a source of income by starring in various television programs and shows.

The father with many children

The most numerous father in the history of our country is considered to be the peasant of the village of Vvedensky, Yakov Kirillov, who in 1755, in connection with this, was presented to the court (he was then 60 years old). Peasant's first wife gave birth to 57 children: 4 times four, 7 times three, 9 times two and 2 times one. The second wife gave birth to 15 children. Thus, Yakov Kirillov had 72 children from two wives.

The richest grandfather

A resident of Novokuznetsk is called the richest grandfather. And he has 13 children: eleven sons and two daughters.

In the world I could not repeat or break this record. The advantage of the peasant woman was her genetics, which made it possible to produce children in 27 births. Vasilyeva gave birth to twins 16 times (another world record), triplets and four quadruplets were born seven times. Unfortunately, only 67 children survived to conscious age.

It is worth noting that this record is not the final point for Fedor Vasiliev himself. The peasant was married twice. In his first marriage, he gave birth to 20 more children. As a result, there were 87 children in the large family. This fact was appreciated even by Catherine the Great, and information about such a large offspring was included in the book “Additions to the Acts of Emperor Peter the Great.”

Historians are still arguing about the order of birth of the children of the peasant Vasilyev. However, facts gleaned from house books and issues of the Vedomosti newspaper indicate the excessive fertility of the second wife.

The largest families of our time

If the record of the peasant Vasilyeva to this day has not been broken by a single woman, Fyodor Vasilyev himself was ahead of the modern Indian Zion Chan (Zion Khan) with a noticeable advantage. The polygamist will give birth to 94 children.

The Indian man was able to conceive so many children thanks to his wives - Zion Chan has 39 of them. The huge family lives in a multi-storey building. The wives of the sons and grandchildren of the hero father also live in it. According to the most conservative estimates, about 180 people live in the house.

According to the father of the family, they begin to prepare for dinner in their house before breakfast. As a rule, wives take part in cooking. To feed so many people, more than a dozen chickens and several carts of vegetables are spent on one meal.

In those countries where it is prohibited, records are distinguished by “modesty”. The closest person to Vasiliev's record was a resident of Chile, Leontina Albina. She managed to give birth to 55 children and was also included in the Book of Records.

Modern Russia has its own heroes of childbirth. Today they are Elena and Alexander Shishkin. The family (a branch of Christianity where abortion is strictly prohibited) produced 20 children. Nineteen of them still live with their parents, and the eldest son already has his own family and three children.

Active supporters of Christianity Bob and Michelle Duggar did not think about having a large family. Initially, their plans included giving life to two or three children. However, after the first baby and subsequent contraception, the woman had a miscarriage, which almost cost her life. After this, the husband and wife decided not to interfere with “God’s plans” and surrendered to the will of fate. As a result, they became one of the largest families in America, giving birth to and raising 19 children. There could have been more babies, but three of Michelle's births ended in the death of the babies.

The happiness of becoming parents does not come easily to everyone at will. Long gone are the days when people could only pray for the appearance of their babies, hoping for luck. Modern medicine offers childless couples many methods for realizing their cherished dreams, which sometimes leads to such unexpected results as multiple pregnancies.

Interesting pages of history

It is known for certain that in 1946, a Brazilian woman gave birth to ten offspring, born from one mother. History is silent about whether the kids were able to adapt to the world around them. Around the same time, similar numbers of births were recorded in Spain and China. Little is known about their further fate.

A little more detail can be found about the eight twins of an American citizen, each of whom survived. Another American woman also set an unofficial record for childbearing: in 1998, she had eight children at once, and seven were not only saved from death, but also subsequently raised.

The feat of becoming parents of many children

What's special about being pregnant with multiple fetuses at once? The reasons that absolutely lead to multiple pregnancies are not always amenable to logical explanation, but there is also a completely scientific view. Recently, the appearance of several babies at once is a frequent consequence of the artificial insemination procedure, due to the specific features of its implementation. Previously, such cases occurred more likely as a result of a coincidence or hereditary predisposition

In addition, women in adulthood should also expect similar surprises during fertilization, since before the onset of menopause, the body produces eggs on a regular basis. Mothers of many children who, before conception, stopped taking hormonal drugs or took antibiotics for a long time are not immune from the unexpected possibility of becoming pregnant.

Childbirth during a multiple pregnancy usually occurs earlier, the more children a woman carries. This natural process has a number of features in this case, because the work of all systems of the mother’s body works at an increased rate and consumes much more energy.

Despite the fact that such pathologies as uterine bleeding and oxygen starvation of the second fetus cannot be excluded, the procedure is used only under strict indications. If we are talking about a pregnancy with four fetuses or more, there is a high probability of the children dying after their birth. And therefore, you need to be especially scrupulous in choosing an institution that conducts an unusual birth and a doctor who delivers the child.

There is a popular belief that a baby born weighing less than average is not a healthy newborn, even if he was born without any complications and on time. Large children with great height and weight are considered healthy.

Pathology or normal

The norm is considered to be a weight of three kilograms, plus or minus 500 grams. You could say this is a classic weight. “Giants” are considered to be babies weighing more than five kilograms. The height of such heroes is also above average and can reach up to 60 centimeters.

However, there are cases when even these “heroic” norms are exceeded by several tens of percent.

Such large babies will not necessarily become giants. With age, the difference with children with average parameters gradually decreases, and by maturity it disappears altogether. For example, Tom Jerryson, born in Texas, weighed 8.5 kilograms in 1962 and was 58 centimeters tall. By the age of 10, his weight was already 33 kg, that is, within the average norm. At 50 years old, with a height of 175 cm, his body weight was 80 kg. It turns out that nature itself corrects failures in the development of giant children.

True, not everything is so good. Doctors have been studying such anomalies for several decades. Often, children born overweight subsequently suffer from diabetes mellitus, and allergic diseases are much more common in them. This occurs due to altered muscle tone. Children born large often develop neurological diseases. Of course, when such a child is born, it is not necessary that he will develop all such diseases, but the risk of their occurrence is much greater than in “average” children.

It’s just that the baby’s parents will need to pay more attention to such factors in the future.

Records of the birth of giants

The world has long been recording appearances with weight exceeding the norm. The Guinness Book of Records describes many such cases. Just recently, a baby was born in Indonesia whose weight was more than nine kilograms (2009). His height was 62 cm. The birth of such a child can hardly be called a normal birth; most likely, it was removed from the mother.

Modern medicine is ready for such surprises of nature, so the health of the mother of such a hero was not in danger. The difficulty was raising a child after birth. The mother constantly had to feed the baby, since from his first days he had an increased appetite. This large baby was also different from the other babies in his voice, because he cried much louder than the others.

Doctors explain this increased development of the fetus by the mother's illness due to diabetes mellitus. The largest in the countries of the former CIS are considered to be a boy weighing 6.7 kg (Samara) and a girl born in Altai, her weight was 7.7 kg. Currently, the record holder is a child whose birth weight reached 10.2 kg. This baby was born in 1955 in Italy.

Pregnancy for most women is an expected and happy event, but it happens that it turns out to be multiple. Most often, a woman with a multiple pregnancy gives birth to twins or triplets, but is it possible to give birth to six children at one time?

All about multiple pregnancy

Multiple pregnancy is a condition in which two or more embryos develop simultaneously in the uterus. The body of a woman with a multiple pregnancy requires very close attention, so the future mother of many children should treat it with all responsibility. She must follow a special daily and nutritional regimen, as well as undergo prevention of possible complications. Children born as a result of multiple pregnancies are called identical or fraternal twins.

Simultaneous maturation of two or more eggs occurs in both one and two female ovaries at once.

The causes of multiple pregnancies are most often several factors, which include maternal heredity and in vitro fertilization, in which all the eggs implanted in the woman’s uterus take root and develop. In addition, multiple pregnancies can develop as a result of stimulation of ovulation by hormones that cause increased functioning of the ovaries, as well as with uterine anomalies, represented by its bicornuity or the presence of an intrauterine septum. And finally, the development of two or more fetuses is caused by the abolition of hormonal contraceptives after their long-term use.

Six-fetal pregnancy

The most multiple pregnancy reliably known to doctors consisted of nine children, several of whom were born alive, but died in childhood. Subsequently, it became known about the birth of seven and eight twins - in each case, only a few children survived the pregnancy. The six Indian twins are the first children ever to survive.

Now there are two sets of twins born in 1983 and 1986 living in England, and two more “sixes” live in Italy and South Africa.

Today, the birth of six children is quite possible, since in recent years the quality of obstetric services and pediatric therapy, as well as the necessary medical equipment, has increased significantly. Today, doctors can successfully deliver a woman with a multiple pregnancy and save children born even fourteen weeks prematurely, whereas previously they did not try to save such babies, considering the situation completely hopeless.

Guinness Book of Records

Motherhood

Largest number of children

The largest number of children born to one mother, according to official data, is 69. According to reports made in 1782, between 1725 and 1765. the wife of the Russian peasant Fyodor Vasiliev gave birth 27 times, giving birth to twins 16 times, triplets 7 times and twins 4 times. Of these, only 2 children died in infancy.

Of our contemporaries, the most prolific mother is considered to be Leontina Albina (or Alvina) from San Antonio, Chile, who in 1943-81. gave birth to 55 children. As a result of her first 5 pregnancies, she gave birth to triplets, all of them male.

Has given birth the most times

Elizabeth Greenhill of Abbots Langley, c., allegedly gave birth a record number of times - 38 times. Hertfordshire, UK. She had 39 children - 32 daughters and 7 sons - and died in 1681.

The oldest woman in labor

At the age of 63, Rosanna Dalla Corta of Viterbo, Italy, gave birth to a boy on July 18, 1994; Before this, she underwent treatment for infertility. According to a report from the University of Southern California, 63-year-old Arsely Keh also gave birth to a child in 1996.

Newborns

Brenda Gill's son, James Gill, was born 128 days early in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on May 20, 1987. was 624

The longest intervals between births in multiple pregnancies

Peggy Lynn from Huntington, NY Pennsylvania! USA, gave birth to a girl, Hannah, on November 11, 1995, and the second of the twins, Eric, only 84 days later (February 2, 1996).

Longest separation between two twins

Iris Jones and Aro Campbell (b. 1914) met after 75 years of separation.

Multiple births

Siamese twins

Conjoined twins began to be called “Siamese” after Chang and Eng Bunkers were born conjoined at the sternum in the Maeklong region of Siam (Thailand) on May 11, 1811. They were married to Sarah and Adelaide Yates of State. North Carolina, USA, and had 10 and 12 children, respectively. They died in 1874, and with a difference of 3 hours.

The most extreme form of this phenomenon is a human being with two heads, four arms and two legs (dicephales tetrabrachius dipus). The only recorded case of this kind is Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapov, born in January 1950. in the USSR.

The first successful operation to separate conjoined twins was performed on December 14, 1952 at Mount Sinai Hospital, Cleveland, PC. Ohio, USA, Dr. Jacques S. Geller.

Largest number of multiple births in one family

Maddalena Granata from Italy (b. 1839) gave birth to triplets 15 times.

There is also information about birth on May 29, 1971 in Philadelphia, pcs. Pennsylvania, USA, and in May 1977 in Bagarhat, Bangladesh, 11 twins. In both cases, not a single child survived.

Centenarians

Oldest person (documented)

In Arles, France, 122-year-old Jeanne Louise Calmat, born February 21, 1875, died in August 1997. Today, the oldest person is Marie Louise Febron-Mailer, Quebec Ave., Canada, who is 116 years old.

Oldest twins

February 14, 1803 in Effington, pc. Eli Shadrack Phipps and John Meshack Phipps were born in Virginia, USA. Eli was the first to die at the age of 108. It was February 23, 1911.

Oldest triplets

Faith, Hope and Charity Cardwell were born in Elm Mott, Pc. Texas, USA, May 18, 1899 Faith was the first to die on October 2, 1994, at the age of 95.

Oldest quadruplets

Adolph, Anna Maria, Emma and Elizabeth Ottman were born May 5, 1912. in Munich, Germany. Adolf was the first to die on March 17, 1992 at the age of 79.

Largest number of descendants

In countries where polygamy is legal, a person can have countless children. It is said that the Sultan of Morocco Moulay Ismail (1672-1727) by 1703 had 525 sons and 342 daughters, and in 1721, when he was 49 years old, became the father of the 700th son.

On the day of his death at the age of 96 in October 1992, Samuel S. Maheth of Freiberg, Pc. Pennsylvania, USA, had a total of 824 living descendants: 11 children, 97 grandchildren, 634 great-grandchildren and 82 great-great-grandchildren.

Descendants spanning the largest number of generations

Augusta Bunge from piece. Wisconsin, USA, became a great-great-great-great-grandmother on January 21, 1989, at the age of 110, when her great-great-great-granddaughter gave birth to her son, Christopher John Bollig.

Largest number of living ancestors

At the time of her birth in 1982, Megan Sue Austin, Bar Harbor, Pc. Maine, USA, had 19 direct ascendants, which included a full set of grandparents, great-grandparents, and 5 great-great-grandparents.

Most fertile pregnancies

Dr. Gennaro Montanino, Rome, Italy, claims to have removed the embryos of 10 girls and 5 boys from the uterus of a 35-year-old woman who was 4 months pregnant in July 1971. This unique case of 15th pregnancy was the result of taking fertility pills.

Geraldine Broadrick gave birth to 9 children - the largest number in one pregnancy - on June 13, 1971 in Sydney, Australia. 5 boys and 4 girls were born: 2 boys were stillborn, and none of the rest lived more than 6 days.

Cases of the birth of 10 twins (2 boys and 8 girls) are known from reports from Spain (1924), China (1936) and Brazil (April 1946).

Infectious diseases

“Ancient” diseases

Already in 1350 BC. In ancient Egypt, cases of leprosy were described.

Egyptian mummies preserved from the 20th dynasty (1250-1000 BC) showed traces of an infectious liver and kidney disease such as (Tuberculosis Schistosomiasis).

The biblical Old Testament mentions and.

“Newest” disease

Recently, an infectious disease has been discovered, which is a new type of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, leading to dementia. The disease is likely caused by a tiny piece of protein called a prion. It is transmitted to humans from cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalitis (BSE).

Most widespread disease

The most widespread infectious disease is upper respiratory tract disease. There are at least 40 different viruses (either transmitted through the air or through direct contact) that cause symptoms such as sneezing, sore throat, watery eyes, runny nose, headache, and mild fever.

A rare disease

The rarest disease now is smallpox. In May 1978, the World Health Organization (WHO) had not recorded a single case of smallpox in the previous 6 months. The last fatal case of smallpox occurred in August 1978. A photographer working in a laboratory at the University of Birmingham, UK, was infected from a sample kept for research purposes.

The most dangerous diseases

A mortality rate of over 50% is observed with Lassa fever, an epidemic disease caused by a rare West African virus. Very high mortality was also observed with cercopithecus hemorrhagic fever (Marburg virus disease) and Ebola fever.

Since 1900, cholera has claimed approximately 20 million lives in India. During epidemic outbreaks, if left untreated, the mortality rate can reach 50%.

Less common is yellow fever, a viral disease transmitted by mosquitoes. It reportedly kills 10-90% of those affected.

The most dangerous malaria infection