From The Times of Israel:
An expectant woman who arrived at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem to give birth earlier this week astounded staff when she revealed that the baby would be her 20th child. The ultra-Orthodox woman, 42, was from the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem, the hospital said in a statement Wednesday. Midwife Aliza Altmark was chatting with the woman in preparation for the birth when the mother revealed that she already had 19 children — including one set of twins — from 18 previous births. In total, the serial birther has spent some 14 years of her life pregnant, the hospital said in a statement. Over the years some of her older children have married and had children themselves.
For those who are curious: Guiness reports that the “most prolific mother” in recorded history was a Mrs. Vassilyva in Russia.
Details:
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.
And today we celebrate...