Going for a record: women who gave birth to the most children in the world. How many children were in the largest family This story is supported by real facts

A woman who lived in Russia in the 18th century set a "world record" by giving birth to 69 children from 1725 to 1765. This is Valentina Vasilyeva from Shuya, who was the first wife of the peasant Fyodor Vasilyev. Of these, she had 16 twins, triplets - 7, quadruplets - 4. In total, there were 27 births. In total, 67 children survived in infancy.

Fedor Vasiliev and his second wife had 18 children (of which: twins - 6, triplets - 2). The first report about this peasant and his family was published in 1783 in the London magazine. Then it was written about him in 1834 in the book Panorama of St. Petersburg. The history is truly amazing. But was she really there? This is suggested by the online publication Yenata.blitz.bg.

Doubtful record?

Fyodor Vasiliev and his first wife Valentina lived in Russia, in the town of Shuya, between 1707 and 1782. According to some reports, Valentina died when she was 76 years old. Of her 69 children, only two died in infancy. According to the Guinness Book of Records, this woman is the most prolific of mothers.

If you try to calculate the years in which she could give birth, then this could be the period from 1725 to 1765. That is, her 27 pregnancies could fall on a period of life equal to forty years. At first glance, this will seem possible to someone, but at the second - doubtful. Yenata.blitz.bg offers to make a number of calculations.

Whole 18 years?

It is known that in general, pregnancy in humans takes 40 weeks. However, the more embryos in the mother's womb, the more likely it is that the birth will be premature. According to some estimates, the peasant woman Vasilyeva could have 37-week pregnancies with twins, 32 weeks with triplets and 30 weeks with quadruplets.

The total is 936 weeks. There are 52 weeks in one year. Dividing 936 by 52 gives 18 years. Thus, Valentina Vasilyeva had to spend 18 years in a state of pregnancy. Isn't that a very impressive number? If we take into account the opinion of experts, then they question this assumption.

Reasons to doubt

Theoretically, one can talk about the physiological characteristics inherent in some women, which could also be present in a prolific peasant woman. And they need to be taken into account:

• Firstly, there is such a phenomenon as multiple ovulation, when several eggs mature during one cycle. Although not the most common occurrence, approximately 5 to 10% of periods are. This phenomenon could be observed in Valentina. But at the same time, she still managed to avoid the "twin syndrome", when one of the fetuses is absorbed by the other or by the mother's body itself. With multiple pregnancies, it is observed in 25-30% of cases.
• Secondly, both pregnancy and childbirth are always a certain stress for the female body. If pregnancy follows one after another with an interval of less than 18 months, then the risk of complications for both the woman and the child is quite high. The mother does not have enough time to recover from a previous birth. So if even two pregnancies in a row are risky, what about 27?
• Thirdly, experts doubt that with such an intensity of the birth of children, even in the modern world, with today's development of medicine, the probability of survival of both mother and offspring is not high. Obviously, in a provincial town in the 18th century, it was much smaller. At that time, any pregnancy was accompanied by risks.

Children still need to be fed

At the same time, one should not lose sight of the fact that peasant women, as a rule, were burdened with hard work and did not have enough time to take care of children. At the same time, in order to feed such a horde, a large amount of food was needed, plus clothing, a place in the dwelling to accommodate it. It is unlikely that an ordinary peasant family could provide everyone with such a number of offspring.

Publications about an unusual family

Nevertheless, there are a number of publications that can speak in favor of the described phenomenon of a large family of Vasiliev peasants. These include, for example, the following:

1. In 1782, a letter was sent from the Nikolsky Monastery to Moscow, which stated that Fyodor Vasilyev had children from two marriages. His second wife had 18 children (12 twins and 6 triplets). These data were posted in 1834 in the "Petersburg Panorama".
2. In 1783, the Gentleman magazine published an article about the unusual Vasiliev family. Its author argued that such "extraordinary fertility" could be explained by a phenomenon inherent in both a man and a woman, or both at once.
3. One of the French publications said that the French Academy of Sciences became interested in this family and turned to the St. Petersburg Academy to clarify the issue.

In conclusion, it should be noted that the family depicted in the main photo is by no means the Vasilievs, as one might think. In this photo you can see Joseph Smith's family. He was co-chairman of a religious organization that is the largest branch of Mormonism. He was married six times and had 45 biological and five adopted children.

The deceased was considered one of the most prolific mothers in the world. Official confirmation of the number of Palestinian children was not found, according to Khaleej Times.

ON THIS TOPIC

Note that in the Guinness Book of Records, the place of honor of a prolific mother is occupied by the wife of a Russian peasant Fyodor Vasiliev. In the XVIII century, she gave birth to her husband also 69 children. It is believed that a woman gave birth to twins 16 times and triplets seven times. Four times she was able to give birth to four babies at once.

It is noteworthy that Fyodor Vasiliev had 18 more children from his second marriage. Thus, he had 87 offspring, but this was not enough for him to set a male record.

Earlier it was reported that in the Chinese province of Hebei, a woman six days after the birth of her son gave birth to two more twin girls. All children were born underweight, so now they are in the intensive care unit.

According to the midwife who took delivery, the pregnant woman had dizygotic triplets - two children developed in their own intrauterine membrane, while the third was separate from them. The doctor noted that this is the first such case in her medical practice over the past 20 years.

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, tells Jesus Daily.

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 (nowadays - a district 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 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.

For a more detailed analysis of the likelihood that this story is true, .

The Guinness Book of Records is full of incredible achievements, but the veracity of one of them raises serious doubts in many people. We are talking about the record of a woman who allegedly gave birth to 69 children in her life. This, according to the information that has come down to our time, is the wife of a certain peasant Fyodor Vasiliev.

The exact name of this woman, alas, is unknown, although some sources suggest that her name was Valentina. According to the records of the village of Vasilyevskoye, Shuisky district, Valentina Vasilyeva gave birth 27 times, and at the same time she gave birth to twins 16 times, triplets seven times and quadruplets four times. Moreover, almost all of her children (67 out of 69) survived early infancy.

As the story goes, Fedor lived with Valentina while she could give birth to children, and when she lost this opportunity, being already an elderly person, he married a second time - and his new wife bore him 18 more children.

The main source of information about this history are the monastic records. From the records it follows that in 1782 Fedor Vasiliev was the father of 87 children. At that time, Fedor was already 75 years old, and of all the children, 82 survived.

Of course, despite the fact that this record is documented, it is not possible to verify the accuracy of this information. So, Adam Hadkhazi from the BBC service conducted an investigation and found out that Valentina Vasilyeva had to be pregnant for 18 years in order to give birth 27 times. At the same time, it is rather doubtful that she could give birth to two, three and even four children without any complications.

If we talk about what were the chances of a successful birth for a woman at the end of the 18th century, but the chances were small, even if it was a normal pregnancy with one child. Today's medicine allows premature babies to come out (and triplets and quadruplets are almost always born prematurely), but even today, any pregnancy and childbirth is a risk to a woman's health. What can we say about the health of a woman who survived 27 births in a Russian village of the 18th century?

Of course, experts recognize the rare, perhaps even unique of its kind, the opportunity to repeatedly give birth to twins and triplets. But here another question arises - how did the peasant manage to feed such a horde of children, most of whom were the weather.

One way or another, Vasilyeva's record is indeed included in the Guinness Book of Records, and it is very doubtful that someone could somehow "surpass" it without the intervention of genetic engineering in the near future. Another thing is parenthood. The fact of the paternity of Fedor Vasiliev 87 children, in principle, no one doubts. He is even compared to Genghis Khan, who became the father of several hundred children. To date, according to genetics, about 16 million inhabitants of various countries around the globe are considered to be his descendants.

As for Valentina Vasilyeva, this story still does not find any refuting or confirming additional sources of information. Although, if you look at - mothers of eights, then there are even more doubts.

The exact name of this woman, alas, is unknown, although some sources suggest that her name was Valentina. According to the records of the village of Vasilyevskoye, Shuisky district, Valentina Vasilyeva gave birth 27 times, and at the same time she gave birth to twins 16 times, triplets seven times and quadruplets four times. Moreover, almost all of her children (67 out of 69) survived early infancy.

As the story goes, Fedor lived with Valentina while she could give birth to children, and when she lost this opportunity, being already an elderly person, he married a second time - and his new wife bore him 18 more children.

The main source of information about this history are the monastic records. From the records it follows that in 1782 Fedor Vasiliev was the father of 87 children. At that time, Fedor was already 75 years old, and of all the children, 82 survived.

Of course, despite the fact that this record is documented, it is not possible to verify the accuracy of this information. So, Adam Hadkhazi from the BBC service conducted an investigation and found out that Valentina Vasilyeva had to be pregnant for 18 years in order to give birth 27 times. At the same time, it is rather doubtful that she could give birth to two, three and even four children without any complications.

If we talk about what were the chances of a successful birth for a woman at the end of the 18th century, but the chances were small, even if it was a normal pregnancy with one child. Today's medicine allows premature babies to come out (and triplets and quadruplets are almost always born prematurely), but even today, any pregnancy and childbirth is a risk to a woman's health. What can we say about the health of a woman who survived 27 births in a Russian village of the 18th century?

Of course, experts recognize the rare, perhaps even unique of its kind, the opportunity to repeatedly give birth to twins and triplets. But here another question arises - how did the peasant manage to feed such a horde of children, most of whom were the weather.

One way or another, Vasilyeva's record is indeed included in the Guinness Book of Records, and it is very doubtful that someone could somehow "surpass" it without the intervention of genetic engineering in the near future. Another thing is parenthood. The fact of the paternity of Fedor Vasiliev 87 children, in principle, no one doubts. He is even compared to Genghis Khan, who became the father of several hundred children. To date, according to genetics, about 16 million inhabitants of various countries around the globe are considered to be his descendants.