Valentina Vassilyeva and her husband Feodor Vassilyev are alleged to hold the record for the most children a couple has produced.
Story highlights
Meijer, a sperm donor, is believed to have fathered 550 children, but The Times reported that he is being sued for increasing the risk of accidental incest. Meijer is reportedly from The Hague and now lives in Kenya.
Known as the Sperminator the inseminator, or perhaps even "America's Dad," Ari Nagel is the biological father to over 100 children across the world.
The most fertile woman in history is alleged to be an 18th-century Russian peasant called Valentina Vassilyev. Between 1725 and 1765, she is recorded as giving birth to a total of 69 children – 67 of whom survived infancy. This included 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets.
She birthed 69 babies total in her lifetime. She lived to be 76 and, between 1725 and 1765, had 69 children (16 pairs of twins, 7 sets of triplets and 4 sets of quadruplets) 67 of them survived infancy with the loss of one set of twins. Kingsley Ossuetta and 52 others like this.
Jennifer Waters gave birth to five sets of twins within eight years. She became a surrogate mom to three of the five pairs of children. The mom was thrilled that the five pregnancies resulted in 10 healthy twins.
Women can reproduce for about half of their lifetime and can only give birth about once every year or so. So it makes sense that women can only have a fraction as many children as men. One study estimated a woman can have around 15 pregnancies in a lifetime.
In 1997, the McCaughey septuplets, born in Des Moines, Iowa, became the first septuplets known to survive infancy. Multiple births of as many as eight babies have been born alive, the first surviving set on record goes to the Suleman octuplets, born in 2009 in Bellflower, California.
South Korea has the world's lowest fertility rate, a struggle with lessons for us all. A woman holding her daughter looks at a view of Seoul in 2019. The fertility rate in South Korea, which has the world's lowest rate, hit 0.78 in February.
Collectively, the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa have the highest average fertility rate in the world at 4.6. Niger tops the list at 6.8 children per woman, followed by Somalia at 6.0, the Democratic Republic of Congo (5.8), Mali (5.8), and Chad (5.6).
Kyle Gordy, 30, from California, US, is a sperm donor and the biological father to more than 50 children across the world, but he is now facing a problem in having a regular relationship as women approach him for having a baby and not for settling down with him, according to various media reports.
He had 39 wives, 94 children, 14 daughters-in-law, 33 grandchildren and one great grandchild; 181 family members in total and counting. His family and their four-story residence are one of the major tourist attractions in Mizoram. He was featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Donald Cline, a former fertility doctor who used his own sperm in donations, which resulted in his fathering at least 50 children throughout the 1970s and '80s. It sounds almost too twisted to be real, but unfortunately, Our Father is an investigative documentary, and Dr. Donald Cline is a real man.
According to a local monastery's report to the government in Moscow, between 1725 and 1765 Mrs Vassilyev popped out 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets, over 27 separate labours. The grand total: 69 children.
Men carrying a gene that leads to their sperm having more Y chromosomes have more sons. During times of war and large casualties of male soldiers, those families are more likely to have more surviving sons. And when those men have children, they, like their fathers, might be more likely to have baby boys.
Among men aged 15–49 in 2015–2019, 55.2% had not fathered a biological child, 14.8% had fathered one biological child, 17.4% had fathered two children, 8.2% had fathered three children, and 4.4% had fathered four or more children.
In 2019-20, the rate had fallen to 1.61 babies per woman. According to the report, the data suggests people “adapted to the uncertainty of the pandemic and quickly caught-up on delayed childbearing plans”.
The total fertility rate, a measure that gives the average number of children an Australian woman would have during her lifetime should she experience the age-specific fertility rates present at the time was 1.7 births per woman in 2021. This was up from the 1.59 for 2020, the lowest total fertility rate ever reported.
Both parents have said that the nonuplets were conceived naturally. The four boys and five girls have been named: Mohammed, in honour of the king of Morocco, Bah, in honour of the former president of Mali, El Hadji, Oumar, Hawa, Adama, Fatouma Oumou and Kadidia.
On average, the most fertile men may be able to father up to 15 children in their lifetime. However, this figure is only an estimate, and some men may not be able to father any children due to fertility issues or genetic factors.
Trisomy 13 (also known as Patau syndrome) - MN Dept. of Health.
Grow your family to at least four children! According to a study out of Australia's Edith Cowan University, parents with the most life satisfaction (which means those who are the happiest) are those that have four or more children.
The longest interval between the birth of twins is 90 days, in the case of Molly and Benjamin West, dizygotic (fraternal) twins born in Baltimore, Maryland, USA to parents Lesa and David West (all USA) on 1 January and 30 March 1996.
“So, every patient is different and every case is unique. However, from the current medical evidence, most medical authorities do state that if multiple C-sections are planned, the expert recommendation is to adhere to the maximum number of three.”