The Most Babies in One Birth - Famous Firsts
Written by: Lynn Richardson
June 22, 2008
Filed Under People
The advent of fertility drugs and in vitro has created families where once there was only a dream. Twins and even triplets have become commonplace, as multiple implants typically mean multiple babies. But even in these days of daily fertility miracles, the really big multiples, dubbed Super Twins, still make the news. So what are the records for the most babies in one birth?
Seventh Heaven
The first known surviving set of healthy septuplets was born in the U.S. to the McCaugheys in November of 1997. The four boys and three girls ranged in size from a relatively healthy 3 pounds 4 ounces to only 15 ounces. Although several of the babies experienced medical challenges, and two have cerebral palsy, all seven not only survived but thrived. Ironically, Joel, the tiniest of the babies, does not have lasting medical issues.
Eight is Enough
In 1998, the U.S.’s first set of octuplets was born in Houston, Texas. The first of the Chukwu Octuplets arrived on December 8, nearly 15 weeks premature, and weighed 1 pound, 6 ounces. The remainder of the babies were delivered about two weeks later by Caesarean section. Birth weights ranged from 2 pounds, 2 ounces to 10.3 ounces. The tiniest of them, a girl, lived for only one week after birth. The rest of the babies thrived, and were at last report in 2005 happy and healthy children.
Beyond Survival: Nonuplets and Beyond
In 1999 a Malaysian mother gave birth to nine living babies, officially the most babies in one birth.. Sadly, none of the 5 boys and 4 girls survived beyond 6 hours. An earlier nonutuplet pregnancy in Australia had resulted in two still borns. Six babies died shortly after birth. One baby, a boy, survived for 6 days.
The world record for a natural pregnancy (without fertility treatment) is held by an Argentinean woman, who was pregnant with 12 babies. Unfortunately, the pregnancy was lost before any of the babies were viable.
The official record for the most babies in a pregnancy (although not the most babies in one birth) was set in 1971, when an Italian woman on fertility treatment conceived 15 babies. None of the 10 girls or 5 boys survived to birth.
Not All is Rosy in Multiple Births
While family need not fear a repeat of the tragedy of the Dionne Quintuplets, (born in 1934, then taken by the Canadian government and displayed as a kind of living museum exhibit), there are other challenges with multiple births. Medical professionals are looking at the health issues these pregnancies bring, including prematurity, lifelong medical concerns, and the severe health risks to the mother. Techniques are being developed to reduce the need for multiple implants which will hopefully reduce the number of large multiple births.
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this is weird….
did it hurt
holly shit
I believe that there is a reason that we can only have theses many children at one time - should we do something just because we can? The implications are numerous, and obvious, but science needs to police itself. Sometimes, it is better to restrain ourselves and think before we act.
wtf!?!?!!?
it sounds like it hurt…….i would have died when they told me i was pregant with 15!!!
she pobly had her pussy ripped up hellll badly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AND I THOUGHT THAT MY WIFE WAS HURTING IN LABOR.DAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
im am a 21 yrd old male that pregnanted my wife a 19 yrd woman. in hear ultrasounds there are 11 live babies . she is a month pregnant.. she take care of very well and see the doctor alot and does everthing needed to do she taking alot of vitamn pills and making sure she does not go harsh on her body movments. but even so i am wonder will unborn babie have a good chance surviving?
that is amazing 11 babies
wow that is amazing. i knew of the 7 but not the 15. thats crazy stuff your saying. i give it 5 stars.
Yes it is really amazing, I cant imagine it.
THATS CRAZY HOW CAN YOU HAVE SO MANY BABIES. THE BABIES MUST BE FIGHTING FOR FOOD. THATS JUST TO MANY BABIES. BUT THEY ARE SO CUTE
thats fucking crazy i have always wanted a set of triplets thats all i could ever think of handling good luck matthew with those eleven your wife is having thts amazing i wish you the best of luck i hope they all do very well.
Mathew, Now is the time for you and your wife to stop thinking about you and start thinking about your kids… You will be lucky if ANY survive, and the ones that do may have really bad medical problems in the future… Could you live with yourself knowning that because of your choises you caused these problems for your children?? Go to the hospital and get ridd of 8, that will leave you with 3, don’t be greedy and give your babies the best chance at this life cos they only get one!
How can you honestly tell someone to go get rid of their children? God has a reason behind why she is pregnant with 11, and not 3. If you had 11 children would you go give 8 of them up for adoption just because you had to many? I don’t think so. It’s her body and their decision. Don’t try to tell them what’s best for them.
There is a reason God gave her those babies. God will decide how many she should take home with her.
Give up on your GOD shit!!! Its not about giving children up for adoption, cos if you act soon enough then there will be no babies to give away!!! At least only keeping 3 will give the babies some bloody chance of living, it’s called greed!!! No one needs that many children when so many die due to this reason and its not fair on the little ones to let them form into babies then they have to die or suffer for the rest of their lives because there were too many babies and not enough nutrients, That is the real Killing of it all! And if it there decision and they didn’t want input they wouldn’t have asked for help or answers..! Welcome to the free world of speech, I’ll say what i want to say!
ok
enough is enough
are you serious??? get rid of 8 and keep 3?? the chances of survival are slim but there is a chance!! you are saying give up on God yet you want to play God by deciding how many and which babies to keep alive. good luck to mathew and your 11 babies wish you all the best
HOW CAN YOU GIVE ADVICE THAT WOULD CAUSE THE DEATH OF ANYONE ( INTENIONALLY). I f you read what he wrote he didn’t ask you what should he do )he stated, (but even so i am wonder will unborn babie have a good chance surviving?) How did you come up with the get rid of 8 why not 7,6,5 are all but 1. I was always told if you can’t say something nice then don’t say anything. I hope no one in your family ever get told what you told someone eles to do. God word say he holds us responsible far what we tell someone to do and it lead them from the word of God. Please all of you give your heart if you haven’t to God,ask him to come into your heart today. “Praise God all the day long”
People needs to mind there own is they are happy then let is be we should pray for this baby health and good luck you will be in my prayer.
I think that guy is right. Those 11 babies really have a very slim chance of surviving. A woman is not capable of hold 11 babies. I’m not saying get rid of any, but try to think about the babies and the woman that is carrying them. They need room to grow and a woman can only get so big. There are so many things that can happen during pregnancy especially with 11 babies. Those babies, if they survive, will have a life long of suffering including the parents. A woman is just not equipped to hold that many babies, but nature will take its course and allow whatever happens to happen.
Having more than one baby inside you is oh so well but you don;t just have to think about the safety and survival issue. You need to consider the emotional and financial problems that comes with juggling two many babies the same age at once. If you have a great support network, that’s fine but you cannot get a pushchair for more than 4 babies at a time. And what about cars, the most seats I’ve seen is 9.
Then there’s the chance of them becoming a ‘freak show’ and spending their lives in the public eye. Where’s the fairness in this and where does it end?
all of ya’ll shut the fuck up and chill let her make her own choices
she doesn’t need ya’ll commenting a fucking website dumbasses I swear
its not like she is going to actaully get the stupied comments
I think Matthew is full of crap.
I think matthew is full of crap too,
Do we all really believe this is even true?
Ok…even if this guy is lying, nobody has any right to tell him what to do with his life. It is his decision! I do agree that if a woman is pregnant with 11 babies that there is a really high chance that she or the babies aren’t going to make it. Soon I will be studying to become an OB/GYN soon, but I don’t believe that you should choose one baby over the other. If that was even possible, it would be a very hard decision, and nobody should be telling anybody what to do when it comes to their own childrens lives! It isnb’t anybody elses decision!
Really there is no need to comment on this issue but I’m going to anyways. If Mathew and his wife had intentionally been fertilizied to have so many children they’d be wrong. However, God has placed those babies into her stomach for a reason, whatever that reason may be. Whether it is to teach a new generation about possibilites or something else, he has a plan. No one is right to tell them to give up any of those babies. They have the right to decide whether or not they want to take the risk or have a safer pregnancy. And nobody can tell them otherwise.
You should all mind your own business and get back to your lives, stop worrying about everyone elses! That is the problem with society these days, everyone is so worried about their neighbors yard when their own needs cut.
I’d also like to point out that it was in 1971, when the Italian woman (on fertility treatment!) conceived 15 babies and they were all lost. We have grown much in technoledgy AND knowledge over the years. So the babies have a much better chance at survival than those in the stories on this site.
+1 к предыдущему комменту :)
The only reason I am not sure if I believe Mathew or not is because it is so rare to have so many children at once. I mean you look at jon and kate gosselin, they only had six and nadia seulmen (spelling?) and she had eight and both families where ALL OVER the news. So if this girl was really pregnant with 11 Im sure she would have been on the news by now. As soon as the doctor detected 11 babies I know word would have gotten around and everyone would know about this by now. I do not however have an opinion about keeping or not keeping the babies because I understand its wrong to take a life but I would also want my children to have a chance of survival. I dont know what I would do in that situation so who am I to criticize.
Okay guys I am not sure that I believe Matthew either because I am currently 20 weeks pregnant and most doctors will not do an ultrasound on a pregnant person until they are 18 - 21 weeks. The only way you would have an ultrasound at 1 month pregnant is if she went to the hospital complaining of symptoms that sounded like a possibility of being pregnant. Most people dont even find out that they are pregnant until they are around 6-7 weeks due to the missing period that would not occur until a month later.
Ok, keep going on about god, Have you seen him? does he speak to you? Can you feel him? If you answered ‘Yes’ to any of these questions, you need professional help! To the Wannabe OBGYN… IT IS POSSIBLE TO TERMINATE SOME AND LEAVE SOME! Yes you are right, They all might survive, But with Downsyndrome, Autisim, Spinabifita, Just to name a few ‘COMMON’ complications while there is only one baby. IF YOU CAN LIVE WITH YOURSELF KNOWING YOU COULD HAVE HAVE 3 BEAUTIFUL HEALTHY CHILDREN BUT WERE GREEDY AND KEPT 11, SHAME ON YOU. YOU TRY LIVING AS A PRISONER IN A DISABLED BODY, THEN TELL ME YOU WANT THAT FOR YOU KIDS!!! BY THE WAY, THERE IS NO NATURAL CONCEPTION OF MORE THEN 3 BABIES AT ONE TIME, THERE IS ONLY MEDICAL AIDS AFTER THAT.
2 TIMES IN RECORDED HISTORY LADIES HAVE FALLEN PREGNANT WITH TRIPLETS NATURALLY, EVERYTHING ELSE IS BY IVF!
are you kidding only 2 times in history were natural triplets???? Oh come on I personally know 5 sets of natural identical triplets. It happens more often than you would think. One I personally know had 3 pregnancies a single,one set of triplets and a set of twins all naturally. Things happen for a reason dont criticise someone you dont know anything about.
To Unknown:
John and Kate Gosselin’s 6 kids were a natural set of multiples if i remember correctly….
and is there a way to contact someone who has commented here when their name isn’t a blue link?
Depends who you want to contact.
If Matthew and his wife where trying for a family the hospital will automatically do a pregnancy test and a scan if the euquipment is available to see how far along on the pregnancy is. Especially if your young or iftheir is a suspected multiple pregnancy. Also a woman who is expecting 11 childre at onl 4 weeks would have alot of hgc hormone so they maybe though it was a single pregnancy in a further stage. Eveythign is possible. A lady in Italy gave birth to 13 children in 1989 but lost all of them within 3 months. But she had them! And enjoyed them and had memories of them . Also after having them she never went on to ahve anymore children. And A lady in america has 8 naturally conceived children who are now 13!!!!! and healthy… so it is possible. Dogs are smaller mammals than us and they can have loads of babies at once. If it wasnt natrual or possible or wanted. It would nto work and would not happen
To Sarah: All of the Gosslin’s children, from both her pregnancies, were conceived using fertility treatments. The sextuplets started as septuplets, but she lost one. She couldn’t have children on her own.
As for June 8 Unknown…definitly full of it. I personally know a set of identical quadruplets. And for every other birth…Was the above article not even read?
You can go to the CDC’s websight and get the reported multiple birth statistics, 80% of which were conceived using
To Cassie, it’s standard in the hospital I go to for the first ultrasound to be at around 10 weeks (as it’s the only way to truly confirm a pregnancy). I also know dozens of women who get a confirmation ultrasond at their first appointment after the missed period (at around 6 weeks). It really depends on what the insurance company is willing to pay for. If “Mathew’s” wife conceived due to IVF they count weeks from the moment of conception/implantation, 2 weeks later than those who conceive naturally, that being 6 weeks to a normal woman. So it is likely for a woman who is considered one month pregnant to get an ultrasound.
But, yeah Mathew is full of it. I’m suprised it took so long for people to start pointing that out.
…my last message got partially diappeared. Let me finish CDC statement:
80% of which were conceived using modern medicine, that being 20% of all multiple births were conceived naturally.
there is a process called selective abortion where in multiple pregnancy that you can abort so many of the babies so the others will have a better chance at survival…but i think it is wrong…and i do not recommend it and i dont know how a “mother” would abort her own child if she tryed so hard to get pregnant…and if someone doesn’t want a child then use protection..