From heaviest to lightest baby: A list of record-breaking births
Childbirth is a miracle unto itself. But just like various other aspects of human life, there have been several astonishing feats in this regard as well. From the most prolific mother to the maximum number of children successfully born at once, we bring you some unique and amazing birth and baby records from around the world.
The most prolific mother ever
Who has had the most children ever? The answer is a woman who gave birth to as many as 69 children, in the 18th century. Her name is lost to history but she was married to Feodor Vassilyev, a peasant from Shuya, Russia. She gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets. Sixty-seven of them survived.
Heaviest baby at birth
They say a healthy baby must be weighty. But what about a baby weighing 10 kilograms? A Canadian woman called Anna Haining Bates gave birth to a boy weighing 9.98 kilograms at her home in Ohio, United States, breaking the record for heaviest birth. Measuring 28 inches, he was also the longest baby at birth. Sadly, the extraordinary baby died just 11 hours later.
Lightest baby at birth
The lowest weight recorded for a surviving infant is just 245 grams, according to the Guinness World Records. The baby was delivered through emergency Caesarian section at the Sharp Mary Birch Hospital in California, US, in December 2018. A full-term baby typically weighs between 2.7-4 kilograms. She is now healthy and living at her home, as per reports.
Shortest baby
On July 20, 2002, Nisa Juarez was born measuring just 24 centimeter (9.44 inches) long and weighing only 320 grams. She was born 108 days premature at the Children's Hospital and Clinic, Minneapolis, Minnesota, US. However, she had to stay hospitalized for nearly five months while she developed, and was finally discharged on December 6, the same year.
Oldest person to give birth
Maria del Carmen Bousada Lara is the oldest person to have given birth. She gave birth to twin boys, Christian and Pau, at the age of 66, at the Sant Pau Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, in 2006. She had received IVF treatment in the US after being denied the same in Spain. Maria passed away on July 11, 2009 after being diagnosed with cancer.
Most children delivered in a single birth
Nadya Suleman became an overnight celebrity after she gave birth to eight babies (six boys and two girls) at once, in January 2009. The babies were conceived through IVF treatment and delivered at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, California, US. Suleman, who is popularly called "Octomom" by the American media, already had six children before the octuplets, also conceived via IVF.
Information sourced from Guinness World Records
The records mentioned here and some of the images have been sourced from the Guinness World Records website. Some of these records may be contested. We cannot independently verify them.
