I’m reading a story in a German newspaper about a 65 years-old teacher from Berlin, Germany who has learned that she is pregnant and expecting quadruplets. What’s remarkable about this story is that this is not the result of fertility treatment, in fact it isn’t even a planned pregnancy since this lady was shocked when her doctor broke her the news.
She already has 13 children and 7 grand-children. Her oldest daughter is 44 years old. I wonder if this has to be considered a world record. What’s the biggest known (and well documented) age difference between two children born to the same mother?
There is a case where a woman had a baby at 5. She suffered from precocious puberty and was raped. There are cases where women had babies at 57 where there were apparently no artificial means used. So it’s theoretically possible for there to be a gap of 52 years between children:
No, they aren’t, and I didn’t say that they were. I was saying that there is a case where a woman (with no artificial aids) gave birth at 5 and a case where another woman (with no artificial aids) gave birth at 57. I’m saying that it’s theoretically possible then for there to be a gap of 52 years. Do you not understand what the word “theoretically” means? Now, it may be true that a women who reaches puberty early also reaches menopause early, so both early pregnancies and late ones could never happen to a single woman. However, let me point out that the woman who had her baby at 5 had her second baby at 42 or 43, so there’s no reason to think that the ages of puberty and menopause are correlated.
But that does not answer the OP’s question of “What’s the biggest known (and well documented) age difference between two children born to the same mother?” :rolleyes:
Sorry, I misread the OP. Incidentally, I notice that this woman is not listed in the Wikipedia entry on pregnancies over 50. What’s the reputation of Die Welt, where the article linked to in the OP appeared? Is it a reliable source?
I haven’t looked it up, but I would guess that 35 years could happen. A woman has a child at 15 and her latest at 50. If the question was about fatherhood I think the gap could extend to 55 years or more.
I know a woman with a sister who is 29 years her senior. Her mom had the sister in highschool, then used birth control until she believed herself post menopausal. Then “surprise!”
There are certainly cases of 12-year-old fathers. There is one case of a 96-year-old claiming to be the father of his wife’s child. That would make a gap of 84 years which could theoretically be possible for a father.
My grandfather was born in 1898. If I recall correctly, his oldest brother was born in the mid 1870s (1876?). And in addition to that, he (my grandfather) had two younger sisters who were born around 1905 (plus/minus a couple of years). There were 12 living siblings in total.