19 children

Michelle Duggar is a celebrity. She gave birth to nine girls and ten boys, and named her children with J. She taught all of them at home - such a motley and crowded class turned out.

Michelle had several twins, but she gave birth on average once every 15 months. The Duggars have their own system of education and training. Children are united in small groups, which are called systems of comrades: older children help the younger ones do their homework and teach them about housekeeping.

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Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar, her husband, raised the children religiously. At Christmas, instead of "Merry Christmas," they wished each other "Jesus' birthday." Michelle and Jim want their grandchildren to grow up as close to them as possible, and their children make love only in marriage. Many descendants already have children of their own.

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"Octomama"

14 children

The sad story of Nadia Suliman, who is called an octoma. She is famous for the fact that in January 2009 she gave birth to eight children (octuplets)! After giving birth to six ... In the United States, this is the second time in history when eight children are born alive.

Despite the fact that Nadia had no job, no stable income, no family that could help her (she lived only on government assistance programs), she not only gave birth to eight children, she conceived them with the help of IVF, although at first did not admit it.

Nadia (real name Natalie) was born in California, she was the only child of Angela Suliman, a school teacher, and Edward Suliman, a restaurant owner in Iraq. Natalie was educated and worked in a psychiatric hospital for three years.

At 21, Natalie married Marco Gutierrez, but divorced him four years later. Marco admitted in an interview that the fault was that they could not have children. In 2001, Nadia gave birth to her first son through IVF, in 2002 - a daughter, three subsequent pregnancies gave her four more children.

Nadia's act caused a public outcry not only because of her irresponsible attitude towards the future of her children, but also because so many children would burden the taxpayers. Although Suliman repeated that she would be able to provide for the children and planned to get a master's degree, she never did. In September 1999, during a strike, she suffered a back injury and from 2002 to 2008 lived on disability benefits.

When she brought her babies home in 2009, she did not expect to face such aggression from the public: vandals tore the child seat out of her car, threatened her with violence.

Nadia many times got into scandalous and dubious situations: for example, at some point there were rumors that she starred in pornography. In various interviews, she either stated that she was “trying to be the perfect mother”, then she said that she “hates children” and they “disgust her”. In 2019, when the octuplets celebrated their tenth birthday, she said in an interview with the Australian program Sunday Night that although she was "totally young, dumb, irresponsible selfish", now she does not regret any of her children and says that " children are her life.

The first wife of Fyodor Vasilyev

69 children

Unfortunately, history has not preserved the name of this woman, only her husband. The peasant Fyodor Vasilyev lived from 1725 to 1765, and his first wife (who lived to the age of 76) bore him 69 children (16 pairs of twins, 7 triplets and 4 ... hmm ... "set" of twins of 4 children each). The most amazing thing is that 67 of them survived infancy.

Apparently, Fedor was to blame for everything, because his second wife bore him 18 children: 6 pairs of twins and two triplets. Information about the Vasiliev family is included in the Guinness Book of Records, but many are still skeptical about the veracity of this story. The first published information about them appeared in the British magazine The Gentleman’s Magazine: it seems like one merchant from St. Petersburg told his relatives in England ... In general, yes, there are many doubts about this story.

"The Case of Gravat"

62 children

If there were twins in your family, then your chance to give birth to twins also increases - this is a hereditary trait. A peasant woman from Tuscany, who lived more than a hundred years ago, had a twin sister. And her mother is one of the triplets. It seems her fate was sealed.

Having married a man named Gravata, she gave birth to a daughter. One. An amazing thing. The Spaniard must have even felt relieved, but early. The daughter was followed by six (!) boys, whom she gave birth not in turn, but at one time.

Then four more boys and a couple of triplets. Four again. Then she had the opportunity to "rest" a bit, when she then gave birth to several "single" children. At the end of her strange “career” (we are by no means ironic about the plight of this woman, who is very sorry), she gave birth to four boys.

This is love ❤😬

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the record for the number of children from one mother belongs to Valentina Vasilyeva, the wife of a Russian peasant Fyodor Vasilyev, Jesus Daily tells.

She lived for 76 years and from 1725 to 1765 gave birth to 69 children - 16 pairs of twins, 7 triplets and 4 quadruplets. Of these, 67 survived infancy (one twin did not survive).

It is known that Fyodor Vasiliev was a peasant in the Shuisky district in Russia in the 18th century (now - the region of the Ivanovo region of the Russian Federation). But his wife got into the Guinness Book of Records. Valentina is considered the largest mother in history.

1 mother and 69 children:

27 births, 69 children

The first mention of the children of Fyodor Vasiliev is found in the issue of The Gentleman's Magazine for 1783 (No. 53, p. 753, London). It says that this information, “although amazing, deserves full confidence, for it was transferred by an English merchant from St. Petersburg directly to his relatives in England; he also mentions that the peasant will be presented to the Empress."

The same figures are given in the work of I. N. Boltin on Russian history of 1788 and in the book of A. P. Bashutsky "Panorama of St. Petersburg" of 1834.

Some sources questioned the veracity of this information. Apparently, no one seriously checked the source of this information, so it is unlikely that it will ever be possible to establish the truth.

Nevertheless, data on Vasiliev's children are included in the Guinness Book of Records.

Interestingly, Fedor had even more children than his wife with her 27 births!

The second wife gave birth to Vasiliev 18 more children - 6 twins and 2 triplets. Thus, Fedor Vasilyev was the father of 87 children, of which at least 82 survived to adulthood.

Unfortunately, there are no reliable photographs of the Vasiliev family. The photo in this article is often published as an illustration of this story, but there is no evidence that it depicts Fedor, Valentina and their children.

Although Valentina Vasilyeva's record large number of children can hardly be considered an indisputable historical fact, it is quite possible that she had a genetic predisposition to hyperovulation (when many eggs are released at the same time during ovulation). This increases the likelihood of a multiple pregnancy.

The Guinness Book of Records mentions the story of a woman who lived in the 18th century, who gave birth to 69 children. Valentina Vasilyeva was the first wife of a peasant Fyodor Vasilyev, originally from Shuya in the Russian Empire.

The couple lived in the 18th century, from 1707 to 1782, it is believed that Valentina lived to 76 years old and during her life she gave birth to 69 children, more than any other woman in known history. One pair of twins died in infancy, but her remaining 67 children survived to adulthood.

By the way, their father married a second time and another wife gave birth to 18 more children from him: 12 twins and 6 triplets, 15 of them survived, so in total the man was the father of 82 children.

The Guinness Book of Records calls Valentina Vasilyeva the most prolific mother and no one has managed to beat the record. According to the chronicle, she underwent childbirth 27 times:

16 times she had twins;

Triplets were born 7 times;

4 times quadruple.

It turns out that she got pregnant every three years, this could greatly facilitate the life of our heroine, but it is worth considering that a woman is not able to conceive a child all her life, but only from early adolescence to about 45 years.

Apparently, Valentine was a wonderful exception to the rule and her fertility lasted 40 years - from 1725 to 1765.

The BBC editors were interested in this case, which, as the journalists suggested, could be on the front pages of all the newspapers of that time. They did the calculations and it turned out that Vasilyeva probably carried twins for 37 weeks, triplets for 32 weeks, and quadruples for 30 weeks.

If we add these numbers together, we get 936 weeks, there are 52 weeks in a year, if we divide the previous result by this number, we get 18 years. Thus, Valentina Vasilyeva spent almost two decades of her life in a special position.

One can only imagine how life was in the Russian outback in the 18th century, the achievements of modern medicine were not available, any pregnancy was dangerous. In addition, the Vasiliev family was a peasant. They had to work in the fields and at the same time take care of the children, providing everyone with clothes and food.

Given all of the above, it is difficult to believe in the reality of what happened, the scientific community doubts the reliability of the information. However, there are historical documents that can prove that the couple actually had 69 children.

So the Nikolsky Monastery on February 27, 1782 sent documents to Moscow confirming that Fyodor Vasiliev had 82 surviving children in two marriages.

In 1783, the popular English magazine The gentleman's magazine published an article about the Vasiliev family, the author considered such super-fertility to be the merit of either the husband, or the wife, or both, but it is more likely that Fedor himself was the cause, because history repeated itself and second wife.

In 1878, an article about the Vasiliev family appeared in The Lancet, one of the oldest medical publications in the world. The note stated that the French Academy of Sciences was going to investigate this case, so they sent a request to the then Russian Academy of Sciences, but the French were informed that the Vasilyevs lived in Moscow and they were under the auspices of the Government of the Russian Empire.

Disputes about how many children should be in a family will never stop. Someone judges this based on the political situation in the country, someone draws their conclusions based on the health of the nation, there can be a lot of options. One thing is clear and clear - the family has as many children as it sees fit.

There are exceptions, when there is no desire, but there are some certain principles, such as those that prohibit abortions, oblige to have a certain minimum number of children. Somewhere it is a tribute to tradition, somewhere religious considerations, family traditions. One way or another, there will always be those people who will break the record for the number of children.

To date, according to official information, the largest number of children born by one woman is 69. 27 times the wife of a peasant Fyodor Vasiliev gave birth, this happened in the period from 1725 to 1765. 16 times a woman gave birth to twins, 7 times she gave birth to triplets, and four times she gave birth to four twins, only two children died as babies, the rest all survived.

For the 18th century, this is a very, very strange statistic, maybe someone wrote about it so that we would believe in the 21st century. It is impossible to verify this information now, it remains only to believe in words. If we talk about the twentieth century, then we can recall Leontina Albina from San Antonio, this woman gave birth to 55 children on her own, they are not adopted, they are not foundlings, she personally gave birth to these children. The births took place between 1943 and 1981, the first three pregnancies were crowned with three triplets, all of them male.

Going further, there is a certain record for the number of births, a woman named Elizabeth Greenhill gave birth 38 times. She lived in Abbots Langley, this is in the UK, she had 39 children, including 32 daughters, seven sons.

This brave woman died in 1681. Another record tells us about 15 triplets in one family. Again it seems that someone wrote a joke that later turned into historical fact. The name of this woman is Madeleine Granata, she lived in Italy. No less interesting is that in the state of Pennsylvania, the city of Philadelphia in 1971, 11 twins were born. The same goes for Bangladesh, where 11 twins were born in 1977. And in the first and in the second case, none of the children could survive.

We are talking about a 35-year-old patient who came to the appointment after taking fertility pills, as a result she became pregnant with 15 children at once. But on June 13, 1971 in Australia, Geraldine Broadrick gave birth to five boys and four girls, 2 boys were stillborn, all other children could live only 6 days.

If we talk about positive cases, then in January 2009, the American mother Nadia Suleiman gave birth to eight children, their weight ranged from 800 grams to 1.4 kg. 6 boys and 2 girls were born, it was the 31st week of pregnancy. The woman was never married, but at that time she already had six children.

After that, the American television projects literally torn apart the woman, she was able to earn a lot of money on her children, this topic was actively discussed on the Internet.

But the father of many children in Russia was recognized as the peasant of the village of Vvedensky Yakov Kirillov, in 1755 he even became assigned to the court at the age of 60. The fact is that the first wife of a peasant gave birth to 57 children, these were 4 times four babies, then another 7 times three children, then again 9 births of two babies and, finally, 2 times one child each. The second wife of a peasant gave birth to 15 children. That's how daddy had a total of 72 children.

Today, May 10, is the birthday of the American physician Charles Colton, known for his scandalous idea for the early twentieth century about the need for birth control. For the promotion of contraceptives, he was even imprisoned. In memory of the doctor, we will tell you about the largest mother in the world, a Russian woman, whose name has not come down to us. Let's find out if the Guinness Book of Records could really bear and give birth to 69 children, and what are the limits of the female body.

Even one child is not so easy to give birth and raise. And if there are not just more children, but much, much more? For example, sixty-nine?!

If there had been newspapers during the life of the Vasiliev family, this story would have become a worldwide sensation. In the 18th century, such news was passed from mouth to mouth, which did not prevent the data on the world record from being preserved to this day. More than fifty children are no joke.

So, a long time ago in the village of Vasilyevskoye, Shuisky district, a peasant Fyodor Vasilyev lived with his young wife. Children who were born at that time were recorded in church books. And the monks of the Nikolsky Monastery recorded the babies born all over the district, including in the Vasiliev family. Recorded by the name of the father, so we do not know today what was the name of his heroic first wife. But we know that she gave birth to 69 children in 40 years. One pair of twins died, and 67 children survived, which for that time was considered an incredible success, especially for multiple pregnancies. This fact was noted by Empress Catherine II, and Fedor himself was also presented in the court of the Queen of Britain. How did his nameless wife manage to accommodate 69 babies at 40?

She had 27 pregnancies that ended in childbirth. Twins were born 16 times, triplets were born 7 times and quadruplets were born 4 times.

Let's calculate how long the mother of many children in the world was pregnant. Consider that multiple pregnancies usually end in more early dates. So:

• 16 pairs of twins with gestation up to 37 weeks;
• 7 pairs of triplets - 7 times for 32 weeks;
• 4 times quadruplets - usually not longer than 30 weeks of pregnancy.

There were no singleton pregnancies. And that means that in total Vasilyeva was pregnant for 18 years.

How long the mother of many children lived is unknown. Some sources report that she died at the age of 76, and was Fedor's second wife, others that she did not live even half a century. Her record has not yet been broken, there is evidence of a woman from Palestine who also gave birth to 69 children and died at 40 years old. But it is not known for sure whether everyone in the family was from the same mother. Also, as in the case of the Vasilievs. By the way, Fedor himself, after (or before, the sources are contradictory) the death of his wife, remarried, in which 18 more children were born. If we calculate the probable number of descendants, then today more than 70 thousand genetic heirs of a prolific peasant from the Ivanovo region walk the Earth.

So is it possible to give birth to so many children and survive?

Families in which about 20 children were born are, of course, rare, but they still exist today. In the USA, Great Britain and Russia there are mothers and fathers raising 21 children each!

It is authentically known that in Chile there is a mother of many children named Leontina Albina, who gave birth to 55 babies over 40 years. It also deserves an entry in the Guinness Book of Records.

Speaking of Guinness itself. Fast forward to the 18th century. The family of the famous Irish brewer Arthur Guinness is also large, with Arthur and Olivia having 21 children in total. Three of the Guinness children will continue their father's business, brewing. Thanks to them, famous beer with centuries-old traditions is still produced, and there is also a Book of Records, which was created at the initiative of the company in 1955.

Theoretically, a woman is able to give birth to such a number of children, especially in multiple pregnancies, which significantly reduce the number of births. But is it possible in practice? Let's get back to the calculations.

Menarche, the first menstruation and a signal of the beginning of readiness for conception, in those centuries was noted on average at 15 years old, and the period of fertility lasted an average of 45-50 years, until the egg supply was depleted. The probability of getting pregnant after the age of 45 without the use of reproductive technologies is on average 1%. The ability to conceive decreases with each birth, as this exhausts the body, and the mother needs a recovery period. Even Vasilyeva unambiguously breastfed her children, since there were no mixtures, peasants usually did not have money for breadwinners, and almost all of the children survived. This means that she had periods of lactational amenorrhea, when it does not occur.

Breastfeeding according to the rules lasted "three fasts", that is, on average, children were fed for a year and a half. If we assume that Vasilyeva was distinguished by increased fertility and a new pregnancy occurred in the process breastfeeding children at the age of six months, then she spent almost 14 years on only one breastfeeding. Unless, of course, weaned children from the breast after conception. And if she continued to feed, as expected, then the period of breastfeeding lasted 40 years! It's hard to believe in such iron health ...

Too many twins!

Another questionable fact is the number of multiple pregnancies. Not once has only one child been born. By the way, Vasiliev's second wife also had twins. But the statistics are relentless: today the probability of having twins without IVF is only 1.5%, and triplets - 0.0003%. Quadruplets appear with a frequency of 1 time in 300 thousand pregnancies! Although there is definitely a hereditary tendency to multiple pregnancies, the example of the Vasiliev family, if true, is an incredible phenomenon that is hard to believe. Even 16 pairs of twins sounds like an unreal story to experts.

And the birth of twins and triplets is a huge health risk, not to mention quadruplets. Especially in the eighteenth century, away from the capital's doctors. For example, in Sierra Leone, one of the poorest countries, today the maternal mortality rate in childbirth is 1,100 per 100,000. In Russia, this figure is 11, in Europe - 7-9. Each pregnancy poses a risk to the health and life of the mother, and multiple pregnancies increase the risk several times.

67 survivors and the reason for the divorce

Another questionable point in this story is the survival of children. According to historians, the documents indicate that 67 babies survived infancy. And this at a time when infant mortality reached incredible numbers - from 30 to 60%, and these are children from singleton pregnancies born at term. Twins, and even more so premature triplets, survived even less often.

Finally, it is extremely difficult to believe that there are women who are ready for such a life, consisting of pregnancies, childbirth and feeding for decades, while still taking care of other children. And they all need to be fed somehow. And if this story is not fiction, but true, then the constant care of children who can fill two school classes at once could cause the Vasilyevs to divorce. And also Fedor's remarriage, which brought him "a total of 18 children." There is another version: the children in the family appeared not only from his wife, Vasiliev adopted all the "side branches", hiding their origin. This could explain both the number of multiple pregnancies and the ensuing divorce.