65-Year-Old Woman With 13 Children Gives Birth to Quadruplets and Now They’re Headed Home

International   |   Sarah Zagorski   |   Aug 19, 2015   |   4:49PM   |   Berlin, Germany

In Germany, a 65-year-old woman who already has 13 children delivered quadruplets in May via Caesarian section.

As LifeNews previously reported, Annegret Raunigk conceived after several attempts with artificial insemination over the last year-and-a-half. Raunigk decided she wanted more children when her youngest daughter told her she wanted a little brother or sister. The single mother traveled to the Ukraine to seek fertility treatment since she was banned from it in Germany.

After announcing her pregnancy, Raunigk said, “Everyone should live as they want to but everyone, it seems, has something to say about this. This is not about egotism and it is not selfishness. I like children – they keep me young. You get more tolerant the older you get. I would never dream of telling anyone to do this or that. I am looked after, consulted, observed. I am fit and I am ready to have these babies and to care for them.”

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Raunigk told the Daily Mail how she felt after finding out she was pregnant with quadruplets. She said, “Certainly that was a shock for me. After the doctor discovered there were four, I had to give it some thought to begin with. On the scan it was just clear to see.” Thankfully, Raunigk did not consider selective reduction, which is the practice of aborting babies to “save” others and is common when women use fertility drugs.

This is because to increase success rates, IVF practitioners implant more than one embryo in the woman’s uterus in hopes that at least one will take. Then, when more embryos than are desired implant, doctors “reduce” the pregnancy down to the desired number. Unfortunately, sometimes carrying more than two babies can cause serious health complications for the mother and many doctors feel uncomfortable handling high-risk pregnancies.

Remarkably, Raunigk’s pregnancy was free of major complications and all her babies weighed more than five pounds when they were born. However, two of her newborns had to be given breathing support and two had to undergo surgery after their birth.

Raunigk said she was not afraid for her health or the health of her children during her pregnancy. The 65-year-olds other kids are ages 10 to 44 and now she’s considered the world’s oldest mother of quadruplets. Raunigk also has seven grandchildren, which means her quadruplets are actually younger than her grandkids. The newborns should be headed home this month and Raunigk named her girl quadruplet, Neeta, and the three boys Dries, Bence and Fjonn.

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