A 42-year-old grandmother gave birth to her 20th child this week in Israel. It was a baby boy.
Staff at the Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem got a surprise when they were told by the ultra-Orthodox woman how many children she already had, reported the Times of Israel.
The woman, who remained unidentified in the report, arrived at the hospital earlier this week said a statement put out by the hospital on Wednesday.
Staff found out about the woman’s children when she was talking with midwife Aliza Altmark. As they prepared for the birth, the mother told the midwife that she already had 19 children — including a set of twins. The hospital said that the mother has spent some 14 years of her life pregnant.
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. pic.twitter.com/wH9L3knQTi
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Some of her grownup children have gotten married and had their own children.
As for her 20th birth, Altmark said the mother was composed and calm. But the labor, she said, took a few hours which was longer than the mother’s earlier births.
“She was very excited about every birth, every child, even the 19th and the 20th,” Altmark said. “It also gave me a good feeling. She has sons- and daughters-in-law, and of course she has a lot of help at home.”
The baby was born naturally and there were no reported difficulties.
The Times of Israel reported that the Israeli record for the most births by one mother is not clear, but pointed out that the busiest mother on record on was a Russian peasant woman way back in the 18th-century. According to the Guinness World Records, the wife of Feodor Vassilyev gave birth to 69 children. The record-breaking Russian mother “gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets,” said the record keeper.
A few months back, a 42-year-old British woman created headlines when she also had her 20th child.
Sue Radford and her husband Noel Radford welcomed a baby boy on Sept. 18 and named him Archie. The Radfords were the subject to a popular reality TV show called 16 Kids And Counting.
The Radford have decided that Archie will be the last edition to their family.
“We’re happy to be finishing on a nice even number,” Sue told The Sun.
