# Most Children Born to One Woman? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 23, 2011, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-children-born-to-one-woman/597342 "2011-09-23T16:02:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-children-born-to-one-woman/597342/21 "2011-09-24T18:33:48Z")
My great aunt (not a blood relative, she married my great uncle) was the youngest of 25, all from the same mother. ---
**Author:** ![Sarabellum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarabellum/32/3492_2.png) [@Sarabellum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarabellum)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-children-born-to-one-woman/597342/22 "2011-09-24T18:42:48Z")
The Duggar’s friend/rival big family the Bates have 18 kids and are taking fertility treatments to have another baby. They were on Primetime Live or some ABC news show not long ago talking about it. The Duggar mom is mid-40s now and may be pretty unlikely to have another baby without fertility treatments. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-children-born-to-one-woman/597342/23 "2011-09-24T18:44:04Z")
Fraternal twins tend to run in families. Identicals are a genetic anomaly. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-children-born-to-one-woman/597342/24 "2011-09-24T18:56:44Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > [ul] > > [li]and there’s starting before sixteen… (the youngest mother in the world was 8 :eek:but she stopped at 3)[/li][/ul] Actually, wasn’t she five? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-children-born-to-one-woman/597342/25 "2011-09-24T19:44:39Z")
Mrs. Heliodor Cyr from Canada with her [27th child (1959)](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2009/06/california-crime-wave.html) ---
**Author:** ![starwarsfreek42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@starwarsfreek42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/starwarsfreek42)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-children-born-to-one-woman/597342/26 "2011-09-25T04:05:47Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Actually, wasn’t she five? Yes, she was five. [Lina Medina.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lina_Medina) ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-children-born-to-one-woman/597342/27 "2011-09-25T04:17:52Z")
> [@AndyLee](#): > > How fast in theory can a women get pregnant after she gives birth? I assume it takes a few days after giving birth to get reorganzied down there and get ready for the next one. > > But I think they call them Dutch twins or Irish twins, or something like that. Two babies born in the same year but not twins. Like one is born in January 2010 and the other kid is born in October, Novemeber or December of 2010. So they both have the same birth year. My mother and her brother are “Irish” twins (from a family of 14 children). They each went on to have a set of “Irish” twins. ::hijack over:: ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-children-born-to-one-woman/597342/28 "2011-09-25T05:39:26Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > I suspect that the number of women who have had 18-20 kids (so as to even be in the running here) who go on to later seek fertility treatments when they begin to have trouble conceiving is vanishingly small. In fact, I suspect it’s non-existent. True, but it is more than possible that a woman who has already had 18 kids really likes kids and derives a lot of her personal identity from them. How can you be sure that none of these women wouldn’t try to push off the loss of their fertility as far as possible. There are 3 billion women on the planet, all it takes is one to be the most prolific mother. > [@starwarsfreek42](#): > > Yes, she was five. [Lina Medina.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lina_Medina) Ignorance fought; ↓faith in humanity↓ diminished ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-children-born-to-one-woman/597342/29 "2011-09-25T07:38:34Z")
One extremely well-documented case of a mother giving birth to 15 children, with no multiple births, is [Queen Charlotte](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_of_Mecklenburg-Strelitz), the consort of King George III of the United Kingdom. Those 15 children were born over a 21-year period, 1762-1783, when Charlotte was aged 18 through 39. The two closest in age were the first two, King George IV, who was born on 12 August 1762, and Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, born 16 August 1763, i.e., a year and 4 days later. ---
**Author:** ![manila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-children-born-to-one-woman/597342/30 "2011-09-25T17:09:59Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > My great aunt (not a blood relative, she married my great uncle) was the youngest of 25, all from the same mother. Wow, just wow! That must be in the record books yap? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Neevil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Neevil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neevil)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-children-born-to-one-woman/597342/31 "2011-09-25T17:32:26Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > My brother was born in August of one year, and I was born in July of the next. And I was two weeks early, so that leaves just a few weeks between birth and next pregnancy, I believe. And my brother was born breach, so ouch. My brothers (twins) were born the day before my first birthday. Irish triplets in our case so. Poor mum, she reckons she didn’t have a full nights sleep for 5 years. ---
**Author:** ![Romeo\_and\_Whatsherface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@Romeo\_and\_Whatsherface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Romeo_and_Whatsherface)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-children-born-to-one-woman/597342/32 "2011-09-25T20:41:32Z")
I have a friend whose mother was one of 22 children, but damn, I don’t have a cite. My mom’s best friend had 16 kids. No multiples, so she was pregnant 16 times. Growing up, I thought the poor woman was chubby, when actually she was just constantly pregnant or had just given birth. Great kids, too. There was always someone to play with at _their_ house. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-children-born-to-one-woman/597342/33 "2011-09-26T17:32:11Z")
I looked again into Google News Archives and found a couple of references to different women post-1950 who had given birth to their 32nd child. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-children-born-to-one-woman/597342/34 "2011-09-26T17:42:05Z")
I recall a girl in a university class mentioning that she and her brother were 7 months apart; one of them was premature… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-children-born-to-one-woman/597342.md?page=1)