The purpose of a woman 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 childbearing.

1. The biggest baby in the world

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the heaviest newborn in the world who survived weighed 10.2 kg. It was a boy who was born in 1955 in the city of Aversa, Italy (Aversa). But the largest baby that has been recorded was born in 1879 and weighed over 11 kg. Unfortunately, he died literally in the first hour of life.

There are constant 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 (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 baby in the world weighing 226 grams and 22 cm tall was born in Germany. Emilia Grabarczyk was born in Witten, West Germany. Her foot 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, Rumaisa Rahman, who was born in Chicago at the 25th week of pregnancy, was considered the smallest child in the world. Rumaisa weighed 244 g and was 25 cm tall.

1. The youngest mother

The earliest pregnancy and the earliest birth were recorded by doctors in 1939. The youngest mother was a 5-year-old Peruvian girl Lina Medina (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. Who was the father of this child, no one knows to this day. For a long time, Lina's father was suspected of raping his daughter.

1. The oldest mother

In 2006, Spaniard Maria Carmen Bousada (María del Carmen Bousada) gave birth to twins at almost 67, using the services of the Los Angeles Reproduction Center using donor materials.

The oldest IVF mother lives in India, her name is Rajo Devi. For more than 50 years of marriage, she could not 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. The largest number of children

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

1. The most numerous twins born at the same time

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

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

The German record is gears 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 the speed of childbirth

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

1. Myselfth long labor

In Ireland, 34-year-old Maria Jones-Elliott (Maria Jones-Elliott) had a birth that got into 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 one birth. Amy arrived at 24 weeks, Katie remained in her mother's womb for another three months. Both children are healthy.

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 a Russian peasant Fyodor Vasiliev gave birth 27 times, giving birth to twins 16 times, triplets 7 times and 4 twins 4 times. Of these, only 2 children died in infancy.

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

Giving birth the most times

A record 38 births are said to have been given to Elizabeth Greenhill of Abbots Langley, c. Hertfordshire, UK. She had 39 children - 32 daughters and 7 sons - and died in 1681.

The largest number of multiple births in one family

Maddalena Pomegranate from Italy (b. 1839) had triplets born 15 times.

There is also information about the birth on May 29, 1971 in Philadelphia, pc. Pennsylvania, USA, and in May 1977 in Bagarhat, Bangladesh, 11 twins. In both cases, no child survived.

Most fertile pregnancies

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

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

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

The largest father

The largest father in the history of our country is the peasant of the village of Vvedensky Yakov Kirillov, who in 1755 was presented to the court in connection with this (he was then 60 years old). The first wife of a peasant 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.

Record number of births

Elizabeth Greenhill, a resident of the UK, got into the Guinness Book of Records for the largest number of births. This woman gave birth 38 times. She only had twins once. Elizabeth died in 1681, leaving behind a "rich" inheritance in the form of 32 daughters and 7 sons.

Only another mother-heroine from Italy, Maddalena Granata, can compare with Elizabeth. During her life she was pregnant 15 times and each time she had 3 children at once.

History also knows cases of multiple pregnancies, when 11 children were born to one woman at once. This happened at the end of the 20th century in the USA and Bangladesh. In both cases, not a single child survived.

Record number of embryos
Unfortunately, in almost all cases of multiple pregnancy (more than 10 embryos), if it comes to childbirth, then the chances of survival for such babies are negligible. In 1971, in Italy, Dr. Gennaro Montanino performed an abortion on a 35-year-old woman from whose uterus he removed 15 embryos! 5 of them were male and 10 were female. The operation was carried out for a period of 4 months. In the course of lengthy proceedings, the doctors came to the conclusion that such an anomaly was a side effect of taking fertility pills.

In the same year, in Australia, a woman gave birth to 9 children - 5 boys and 4 girls. 2 boys were born dead, the rest of the children lived no more than a week.

At various times in the middle of the 20th century, reports came from China, Brazil and Spain about the birth of 10 children at once. There is no information about whether the babies survived or not.

In early 2009, a resident of the United States, Nadia Suleiman, gave birth to eight children at once. The media gave her the nickname "Octomam". The weight of six boys and two girls ranged from 800 to 1400 g. All children are alive and well. It is noteworthy that the American has never been married and before this birth she already had six children.

The largest number of children born to one woman
History knows a woman who gave birth to 69 children. The wife of a Russian peasant between 1725 and 1765 gave birth 27 times. The woman gave birth 4 times to 4 children, 7 times to 3 and 16 times to twins. All children, except for two, survived.

Another prolific mother is Leontina Albina from Chile. She gave birth to 55 children, and the first 5 times were born 3 babies and only boys.

The largest father in history
For some reason, all records relating to children are tied to mothers. However, history also knows the most large father - this is Yakov Kirillov. From his first marriage, he had 57 children, and from the second - 15. In total, it turns out that a man became a father 72 times. For this, in 1755 he was presented to the court at the age of 60.

Grandfather-record holder
Another man set a kind of record in the field of childbearing. This is a modern resident of Novokuznetsk Alexey Shapovalov. He is called the richest grandfather in the world. Alexey has 11 sons and two daughters, who gave him a total of 117 grandchildren. Those, in turn, have already managed to “reward” grandfather with 33 great-grandchildren.

The birth of one baby is a classic of the genre of nature regarding the Crown of Creation, man. However, "thanks" to our intervention in nature and the development of artificial insemination technology, multiple pregnancy is no longer a rarity.

Twins and triplets are no longer a feature. Women give birth to five, eight and even 11 children at once. We offer to look at these courageous mothers, who at one time created a large, large family for themselves.

Identical 14-year-old twins were born in a quartet: Megan, Sarah, Kendra and Callie Durst became famous at the age of 6, and now star in a reality show about their lives.
According to data for 2005, 15 identical quadruplets were born in the world, 10 of them are sisters, but there are much more non-identical quadruplets. According to statistics, one quadruple falls on 700 thousand pregnancies.

The most famous, first and only case of the birth of five identical twins is the Canadian Dionne family. The girls were born in 1934 and for many years were a landmark of the province of Ontario, and according to the twins themselves, their fate was not enviable.

In 2013, five were born in Salt Lake City - 3 girls and 2 boys. It is noteworthy that the pregnancy occurred naturally.

Last year, 2016, 37-year-old Oksana Kobeletskaya from Odessa gave birth to five, although the couple were expecting twins.

Nkem Chukwu from Texas in December 1998 gave birth to eight at once. Moreover, on December 8 she gave birth to a girl, and on the 20th - another 5 girls and two boys (one of the babies died shortly after giving birth).

33-year-old Nadi Suliman in 2009 gave birth to eight twins at once - two girls and six boys. All children are alive and well, and this is the only case of the birth of an eight, where everyone survived.

The quintuplets were born in 1971, 1972, 1976, 1977, 1979 and 1999, however, unfortunately, none of these 54 children survived.

Ten children - until today, it was considered the largest number of children born from one pregnancy. In 1946, 8 girls and 2 boys were born in Brazil, there are also known cases of the birth of such a number of children in China in 1936 and in Spain in 1924. There is no information about whether the children survived.

42-year-old resident of the Indian city of Riley Maria Fernandez in 37 minutes, naturally, gave birth to 11 kids. All are perfectly healthy boys, six of whom are identical twins. This phenomenon is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. Thus, today 11 children born from one pregnancy is an absolute record.

Image copyright getty

Carrying and raising even one child is a rather laborious task. However, historical documents claim that a certain woman gave birth to as many as 69 children. Is it true? And will modern medicine be able to expand women's reproductive opportunities? The correspondent is looking for answers to these questions

If the British yellow press existed in the 18th century, the story of the family of the Russian peasant Fyodor Vasiliev would have caused her crazy excitement.

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

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

She gave birth, respectively, 27 times, total - 69 children.

One can only wonder how a modern newspaper editor would have reacted to such fertility, especially given the uproar surrounding the mother of octuals, Nadia Suleman (nicknamed "Octomam" and father of 14 children) and the British Radford family (their 17 children were featured in a TV documentary).

So, is it possible in principle to give birth to more than 60 children?

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

"Something from the realm of fantasy. Well, imagine 69 children? Come on!" says James Segars, head of the Division of Reproductive and Women's Health Research at Johns Hopkins University.

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

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

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

First, let's deal with the mathematical part of the Vasiliev story. Are 27 pregnancies possible in the 40 years in question?

At first, it seems that there is nothing contrary to common sense in this - especially considering that triplets and quadruplets are usually born at earlier dates.

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

Let's make approximate calculations: 16 twins for 37 weeks; seven triplets at 32 weeks; four quarters of 30 weeks. It turns out that in total Vasilyeva was pregnant for 18 years out of 40. She was drawn to salty things - 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 a constant readiness for childbearing over such a long period.

As a rule, the first menstruation in women occurs around the age of 15: every 28 days, an egg is released from their ovaries - usually one.

Ovulation is repeated until the ovaries are depleted of eggs during menopause, which occurs around the age of 51.

However, a woman's ability to conceive decreases sharply long before the onset of menopause.

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

Aging women leads to a decrease in the number and quality of eggs. In the process of intrauterine development, a female embryo can have up to seven million immature eggs, and about a million remain at birth.

The ability to get pregnant decreases with each pregnancy, because each subsequent birth affects the body

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

The last eggs, which ovulate at the end of a woman's reproductive years, are much more at risk for mutations, genetic abnormalities, and other problems associated with aging.

Often, pregnancies involving such atypical eggs end spontaneously.

“Most women are not able to get pregnant after they reach 42-44 years old,” says James Segars. “But sometimes it happens closer to 50 years.”

Moreover, the ability to get 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 a nurse - ovulation did not occur in her body. This natural method of contraception would further reduce her chances of 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 had no problems with having new children.

survive childbirth

And that's not all the difficulties associated with the birth of 69 babies.

Evolution has taken care of slowing down the female "biological clock", because bearing and giving birth to a child is an extremely difficult task, which only becomes more difficult with age.

"Restrictions must be set by nature itself," says Valerie Baker. "Pregnancy is the most stressful process a woman's body has ever gone through."

How burdensome childbirth is for a woman gives the greatest reason to doubt the veracity of the story about 69 children - especially considering that the case was a couple of centuries ago in the Russian outback.

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

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

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. Maybe Vasilyeva expressed it especially brightly?

In this regard, the assumption that the wife of Fyodor Vasiliev survived 27 births is doubtful.

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

“Each pregnancy at that time was difficult, even if only one child was born,” says Jonathan Tilly of Northeastern University (USA), who is researching the use of oocyte stem cells to treat female infertility and other diseases (read more about this below).

A bunch of backbiters

Another aspect that looks implausible in the story of the Vasilievs 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 spermatozoa (so-called fraternal twins), or one fertilized egg is divided into two or more viable embryos, resulting in identical twins with an identical genetic code.

In general, such situations are extremely rare. So, in 2012 in Britain, the chance of giving birth to 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 the statistics of the Multiple Births Foundation.

Yes, the tendency to give birth to twins is indeed hereditary, and in Fyodor Vasiliev's wife it could be expressed especially clearly.

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

"There are 16 twins alone? I would be very surprised," Tilly comments.

Another wake-up call in the history of the Vasilievs: it is claimed that 67 of the 69 children born by them survived infancy.

In the 18th century, infant mortality was high even for children born as a result of a single pregnancy, and reached alarming levels in the event of the birth of twins and so on - these children are usually premature and less healthy.

Now surrogate mothers can carry fetuses from other parents, potentially further increasing 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!" Valerie Baker says

Segars echoes her: "You can go crazy! I can't imagine what it was like to live in this house."

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

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

Brave new world

So what is the real limit? The answer to this question is not so simple, since the "natural" restrictions that apply to the offspring of a single 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).

Secondly, now surrogate mothers can carry fetuses from other parents, potentially further increasing the number of children in the family.

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

According to research in recent years, inside the female ovaries are "oocyte stem cells" that, if properly stimulated, could lead to the creation of an almost infinite number of eggs.

Jonathan Tilly and his colleagues have collected information about these cells from a variety of creatures - from flies to monkeys.

In 2012, they got to 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 mother hundreds or even thousands of children.

Many doctors working in his field express doubts, but Jonathan Tilly is sure that there is a theoretical possibility to activate this mechanism in women.

He hopes to help women whose egg reserves are depleted, including prematurely - for example, due to cancer treatment.

If this hypothetical procedure really turns out to be possible, the imagination paints the following picture: fertility drugs are used to hyperstimulate the ovaries, with numerous follicles simultaneously maturing and ovulating.

This multitude of eggs can be surgically retrieved and fertilized in vitro, and then surgically placed in the wombs of any number of surrogate mothers whose job it is to deliver the fetuses. Each of them can potentially give birth to two or more twins.

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

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 contribute to the elimination of infertility in those who have been diagnosed with such a diagnosis.

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

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

As soon as it comes to the idea that restrictions on female fertility may be lifted, everyone starts to go crazy Jonathan Tilly

Conqueror (and, some believe, serial rapist) Genghis Khan apparently fathered hundreds of children 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 before very old age, and if you start early, the situation can develop according to the model of Genghis Khan," says Jonathan Tilly.

According to him, "male fertility is really unlimited," but if we assume that his research will give the desired result, then "and female too."

If such a scenario does materialize, the existence of mothers with countless children will create a sensation, perhaps even more than the 69 children of the Vasilievs.

The question is: how would the public react to multiple fatherhood? If not so violent, is it fair?

“People take unrestricted male fertility for granted—everyone knows we can do that,” Tilly explains. “But as soon as it comes to the idea that female fertility restrictions might be lifted, everyone starts going crazy.”

The researcher believes that the issue needs to be considered in the future, and the equality for which women have deservedly fought for the past few decades should also apply to reproduction issues.

About this Tilly says this: "In fact, there should be no difference between the sexes."