A set of nonuplets was born on 13 June 1971, in Sydney, Australia to Geraldine Brodrick and her husband Leonard. They were five boys and four girls; two of the boys were stillborn and the last of the surviving babies, a boy named Richard, died six days after the birth.
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.
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.
If the 12 – called duodecaplets – are all born alive they would represent a medical miracle and break the record of American mother Nadya Suleman, who recently gave birth to the world's longest-surviving octuplets.
Australia's heaviest baby was Stephen Lyttle, weighing in at 7.399 kgs (16 lbs 5 ozs), born at Kempsey hospital NSW. The average baby weight in Australia is 3.35 kgs (7.4 lbs).
'Coke Can Kid' Jonathon Heeley's survival as Australia's smallest baby was uncertain in 1992. Next week he turns 30. "Future unknown." That's what was written on Jonathon Heeley's discharge papers when he went home from hospital after being born 12 weeks premature and weighing just 374 grams in mid-1992.
Cheyenne, who has dark hair and blue-green eyes, isn't the smallest baby ever born. That honor rests with Kwek Yu Xuan, who was born at 7.5 ounces — the weight of an apple — in June 2020 in Singapore. Her mother also suffered from preeclampsia and gave birth by an emergency C-section, according to the BBC.
Three babies that are carried during one pregnancy are called triplets. You can also carry more than three babies at one time (high-order multiples). There are typically more risks linked to a multiple pregnancy than a singleton (carrying only one baby) pregnancy.
Some names for these are: Twins for 2 fetuses. Triplets for 3 fetuses. Quadruplets for 4 fetuses.
Septuplets (7)
The Frustaci septuplets (born 21 May 1985, in Orange, California) are the first septuplets to be born in the United States.
Valentina Vassilyev and her husband Feodor Vassilyev are alleged to hold the record for the most children a couple has produced.
According to research, a woman can have somewhere around 15 to 30 babies in her lifetime.
Maria del Carmen Bousada de Lara is the oldest verified mother; she was aged 66 years 358 days when she gave birth to twins; she was 130 days older than Adriana Iliescu, who gave birth in 2005 to a baby girl. In both cases, the children were conceived through IVF with donor eggs.
Octuplets are a set of eight offspring born at one birth. An individual that is part of such a set is called an octuplet.
Monoamniotic-monochorionic Twins
This is the rarest type of twin, and it means a riskier pregnancy as the babies can get tangled in their own umbilical cords. If you have monoamniotic-monochorionic twins, your healthcare provider will monitor your pregnancy closely.
The world's only nonuplets - nine babies born at the same time - are "in perfect health" as they celebrate their first birthday, their father has told the BBC.
Factors that increase the chance of twins include: consuming high amounts of dairy foods, being over the age of 30, and conceiving while breastfeeding. Many fertility drugs including Clomid, Gonal-F, and Follistim also increase the odds of a twin pregnancy.
The term “Irish twins” refers to siblings who are born within 12 months of one another. This is especially true for children born in the same calendar year, or children who would be in the same grade of school. However, children born within 18 months of one another are still often referred to as Irish Twins.
Irish twins is a slang expression for siblings born less than a year apart from each other.
Imagine finding out you're pregnant again while you still have a newborn. The term “Irish Twins” refers to siblings born within a year of each other, and it definitely does happen.
The earliest a baby has been born and survived is 21 weeks and 5 days. Two babies born prematurely hold the record for this. Surprisingly, the first record holder was born in 1987, at a time when the medical care of premature babies (neonatology) was a very new field.
James Elgin Gill was born in Ottawa, Ontario, on May 20, 1987, around 128 days early or 21 weeks gestation. He set a record when he was born for the world's most premature baby. 20 James was born so early that he was expected to die at birth or—if he survived—to have multiple and severe handicaps.
Freya Minter
Freya Minter was six months old when she took her first steps, leaving the rest of her age bracket in the dust. Her parents, Grace, and Ryan, confidently say that she was always a very alert baby, but even they didn't expect what was to come just a few months later.