A history of birth records: from the heaviest baby to the most prolific mother in history (2023)

FAQs

What was the heaviest baby born in history? ›

The largest baby weighed over three times as much as typical babies. The largest baby ever born weighed 23 lbs 9 ounces, and 28 inches long. That is over three times the weight of the average baby as well as 10 inches longer than the average child.

Valentina Vassilyev and her husband Feodor Vassilyev are alleged to hold the record for the most children a couple has produced. She gave birth to a total of 69 children – sixteen pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets – between 1725 and 1765, a total of 27 births.

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.

The man who is thought to have fathered the most children of all time is Moroccan Sultan Ismail Ibn Sharif (1645 to 1727) with a total of more than 1,000, according to Guinness World Records.

The heaviest baby ever born in the U.S. weighed 22 pounds, according to Guinness World Records. He died 11 hours later. Buckley and Harper appear to be doing well. Harper was placed in the NICU after birth to monitor sugar and oxygen levels but is expected to be released soon.

Most big babies are born healthy. Since many large babies are born to mothers with diabetes, some babies will need help regulating their blood sugar after they're born. They may also need help with their breathing. Jaundice is common in newborn babies and especially in babies of mothers with diabetes.

Our mitochondrial DNA accounts for a small portion of our total DNA. It contains just 37 of the 20,000 to 25,000 protein-coding genes in our body. But it is notably distinct from DNA in the nucleus. Unlike nuclear DNA, which comes from both parents, mitochondrial DNA comes only from the mother.

Young babies are indeed capable of seeing colors, but their brains may not perceive them as clearly or vividly as older children and adults do. The first primary color your baby can see is red, and this happens a few weeks into life.

BEAM: Well, it's fair to say there's no limit per se, but the largest number ever recorded was 15. And that's quindecaplets that were recorded in 1971. An Italian doctor, a guy named Dr. Gennaro Montanino, reported that he had removed 15 fetuses from the womb of a 35-year-old woman.

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.

How many babies can a woman have at once naturally? ›

There's no scientific limit, but the largest reported number of fetuses in one womb was 15.

Although this is quite rare it can happen and it's called superfetation. Two babies are conceived from separate acts in two different cycles. These babies can be from the same father or two different men. When heteropaternal superfecundation occurs, the babies are from different fathers.

Sure. But maybe not that far in the future. Recently, researchers with the Institute of Life in Athens, Greece, announced that a healthy baby boy was born who basically had the DNA from three people. The child was born to a 32-year-old woman who had failed in four cycles of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Guinness World Records shares video of Malian woman who gave birth to nine babies at once. Watch. The nine babies were born on May 4, 2021.

Do giant babies like this one turn into giant adults? Yes. There's no way to predict exactly how big this enormous infant will become, but studies have shown a linear correlation between birth weight and adult size (as measured by the body mass index).

In addition, previous studies have shown that first-born twins are, on average, taller and heavier than second-born twins until adolescence (Silventoinen et al., 2007; Pietiläinen et al., 2002).

If your baby tops the length charts, you might expect them to tower above their classmates one day. But a long infant won't necessarily become a tall adult—just like short babies don't always turn into small-statured people. In fact, a fetus' size is largely determined by the placenta's health.

They found that the most fertile months for conceiving a boy were from September to November, while the lowest fertile period was from March to May.

Birth weight was significantly associated with intelligence at all 3 follow-up assessments, with intelligence scores increasing across 4 birth weight categories and declining for the highest birth weight category.

Increasing intelligence corresponded with increasing birth weight until the age of 26. By the age of 43, the effect was weaker. How brainy the children were at 8 seemed to be the most important influence on later intelligence, the study found.

Which parent determines eye color? ›

Each parent will pass one copy of their eye color gene to their child. In this case, the mom will always pass B and the dad will always pass b. This means all of their kids will be Bb and have brown eyes. Each child will show the mom's dominant trait.

When we casually observe via our eyes, we may feel that we have inherited most of our hair features from either our mom or dad. However, the reality is that we inherit equal volume of genetic information from both mom and dad.

Males normally have an X and a Y chromosome (XY). A male inherits an X chromosome from his mother and a Y chromosome from his father. The picture above therefore shows the chromosomes of a male as the last pair of chromosomes (XY).

One study estimated a woman can have around 15-30 children in a lifetime, taking pregnancy and recovery time into account. Since men require less time and fewer resources to have kids, the most "prolific" fathers today can have up to about 200 children.

Freebirth is the practice of women birthing their baby without without medical or midwifery assistance. Generally, the baby is born at home, although some women choose to have their baby at a place or site which has special significance to them.

The shortest known gestation is that of the Virginian opossum, about 12 days, and the longest that of the Indian elephant, about 22 months.

Newborns prefer to look at faces over other shapes and objects and at round shapes with light and dark borders (such as your adoring eyes). Just after birth, a baby sees only in black and white, with shades of gray. As the months go by, they will slowly start to develop their color vision at around 4 months.

Human newborns can discriminate between individual female voices and prefer their mothers' voices to that of another female (DeCasper & Fifer, 1980; Fifer, 1980). They can discriminate between female and male voices and prefer the females' (Brazelton, 1978; Wolff, 1963).

Babies are born without kneecaps, having only cartilage in the joint.

A double pregnancy, or superfetation, is extremely rare — in fact, there aren't even stats on how often it happens — but it's scientifically possible. We're not saying you should worry about it happening to you, just that you can't say that it's impossible.

What rare birth only happens every 480 years? ›

The Czech Republic birth data revealed that quintuplets are born once every 480 years! Hence this is an exceptionally great birth and all the kids and the mum are healthy!

Three-child policy (Chinese: 三孩政策; pinyin: Sānhái Zhèngcè), whereby a couple can have three children, was a family planning policy in the People's Republic of China.

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.

Having two babies in the same calendar year is rare, and the colloquial term for it is “Irish twins.”

The greatest officially recorded number of children born to one mother is 69. Her name is unknown, but we know she was the first wife of Feodor Vassilyev (b. 1707–c. 1782), a peasant from Shuya, Russia.

Occasionally, two sperm are known to fertilize a single egg; this 'double fertilization' is thought to happen in about 1% of human conceptions. An embryo created this way doesn't usually survive, but a few cases are known to have made it — these children are chimaeras of cells with X and Y chromosomes.

Can twins have different fathers? In rare cases, fraternal twins can be born from two different fathers in a phenomenon called heteropaternal superfecundation. Although uncommon, rare cases have been documented where a woman is pregnant by two different men at the same time.

Superfecundation twins: When a woman has intercourse with two different men in a short period of time while ovulating, it's possible for both men to impregnate her separately. In this case, two different sperm impregnate two different eggs.

The Times said the phenomenon of twins or triplets having different fathers can occur when a woman, having ovulated at least twice in the same cycle, sleeps with more than one man within 24 hours and conceives children by them.

Can a baby have 2 biological mothers? ›

Yes the marvels of science have made it possible and the two-mum approach lets same-sex couples share the biological role. The process involves one woman's eggs, mixed in a lab dish with a donor sperm and then implanted in the other woman who carries the pregnancy.

The man who is thought to have fathered the most children of all time is Moroccan Sultan Ismail Ibn Sharif (1645 to 1727) with a total of more than 1,000, according to Guinness World Records.

Valentina Vassilyev and her husband Feodor Vassilyev are alleged to hold the record for the most children a couple has produced. She gave birth to a total of 69 children – sixteen pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets – between 1725 and 1765, a total of 27 births.

The first wife (died ante 1770), of Feodor Vassilyev (b. 1707–c. 1782), a peasant from Shuya, Russia, gave birth to 16 sets of twins.

Genghis Khan is known as one of the greatest warriors in the history of the world, but that is not the only thing he is known for. He is also known for being the man who had the most kids in the world. It seems that he holds the record for the most children born to one man.

Even if you don't fully recognize it, research indicates that there's a good chance that you actually do have a favorite. In fact, one study published in the Journal of Family Psychology found 74% of moms and 70% of dads reported preferential treatment toward one child.

Oedipus, in Greek mythology, the king of Thebes who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother.

Erramatti Mangamma currently holds the record for being the oldest living mother who gave birth at the age of 73 through in-vitro fertilisation via caesarean section in the city of Hyderabad, India. She delivered twin baby girls, making her also the oldest mother to give birth to twins.

Sure. But maybe not that far in the future. Recently, researchers with the Institute of Life in Athens, Greece, announced that a healthy baby boy was born who basically had the DNA from three people. The child was born to a 32-year-old woman who had failed in four cycles of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

What is the youngest dad ever? ›

Is it true that the first daughter looks like the dad? An article in Scientific American explains how the entire theory of newborns looking like their dad due to evolution and fathers recognizing their offspring at birth and during caveman days isn't true – according to current studies.

More than half of the parents quizzed said they preferred their youngest child, while only 26 per cent said that their favourite child was their eldest. 61 per cent of those who favoured the youngest said it was because the elder children are “tricky or demanding”.