RW had 69 children

[Larry1]

Apparently this is real:

When I read the headline I asked how this could be possible. A woman only has a certain number of child-bearing years.  The answer is multiple births: twins, triplets, and quadruplets. The total is a world record.

Today I found out that the record for most babies born to one woman is 69.  Yes, you read that correctly 69!

Who was this amazing woman with apparently a womb of steel and a vagina her husband just couldn’t say no too?  We don’t really know. (anti-climactic I know)  Her husband is the one whose name has lived on because of her crazy baby making skills. (Feminists of the world unite!)  She was the first wife of Feodor Vassilyev, a peasant from Shuya, Russia who lived from 1707-1782.   We can only speculate how many fire safety ordinances he violated by housing all his progeny in his little peasant sized hovel.  Presumably, at some point they also had to choose to feed on the weak ones in order to provide food for the strong.

How did she manage this feat given most women only have about 30-ish years of baby making ability?  She gave birth to sixteen pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets; so basically a veritable baby making factory who scoffs at “one at a timing” it.  Amazingly, 67 of her children survived infancy, which was a remarkable rate for the day.  No word on whether either of her breasts could say the same.

The folks at the Guinness Book of World Records have some documentary evidence of this. You can find it at the link below:

The greatest officially recorded number of children born to one mother is 69, to the wife of Feodor Vassilyev (b. 1707–c.1782), a peasant from Shuya, Russia. In 27 confinements she gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets. Numerous contemporaneous sources exist, which suggest that this seemingly improbably and statistically unlikely story is true. The case was reported to Moscow by the Monastery of Nikolsk on 27 Feb 1782, which had recorded every birth. It is noted that, by this time, only two of the children who were born in the period c. 1725–65 failed to survive their infancy.

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-prolific-mother-ever

Her husband went on to marry another RW and built his total to 87 kids.

Russia's population did rise tremendously in the 18th and 19th century.

What do you think of all this?

[jone]

It would induce you to think twice before inviting such an FSUW to become your bride.  You look her way and she pops out another.  Can you imagine the cash needed to raise 69 kids in the West??

[Anotherkiwi]

What the hell was she drinking?  Not even ONE single birth out of 27 confinements - you would think that today's fertility clinics would make a beeline for that particular village, and hope that the water supply has not completely dried up. 

P.S.  I had actually heard about this woman a long time ago, but it's been out of my conscious thoughts for many years.

[BillyB]

She gave birth to sixteen pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets;

Seems like long odds and the story may be fake unless the woman is taking tons of fertility pills. Odds of twins are 1.5 in 100 pregnancies. Odds of triplets are 1 in 4400. Odds of quadruplets are 1 in 142,000.


Not factoring the odds of triplets and twins into this, the odds of a woman having 4 sets of quadruplets are 406,586,896,000,000,000,000 or just over 406 quintillion.


http://www.twinsuk.co.uk/twinstips/18/189/multiple-birth-statistics,-facts-&-trivia/what-are-the-chances-of-having-twins.triplets-or-quads-/