Indian Woman Gave Birth To 11 Kids At Once: True Or False?

Indian Woman Gave Birth To 11 Kids At Once: True Or False?

Rumor has it that somewhere inIndia, inSuratto be more specific, a supermom gave birth to eleven babies all at once! Yes, you read that right, eleven babies! Could that be true or is it just an urban myth sustained by some really good photoshop work? Well, while the picture shown speaks for itself, ( and we ALL know how pictures can be misleading) anonymous sources indicate that the 11 sweet little bundles of joy photographed above are actually the 11 babies which were born on the unique day of November 11th, 2011 (11/11/11).

Now, there is a little bit of truth in the picture of the eleven kids. Six of them were indeed twins born to the same mother. But the remaining five are just lucky babies who came to this world on a unique day. But wait just a minute! It appears that calls were indeed made to the Guiness Book of World Records to acknowledge the amazing record  and they declared that “unofficial sources” are willing to produce even more evidence of the amazing birth of 11 babies to the same mom.

Just so you know, at this point no official news agency has been able to confirm nor deny the information that a woman gave birth to 11 kids in just one pregnancy.  So let’s take a step back and analyze the situation medically and logically. Is it possible or not for a woman to carry 11 fetuses in her womb, and to actually deliver them all alive.

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Is it medically possible?

According to medical journals, multiple births can occur either by natural causes, such as the woman who ovulates more than one egg per month, in which case they can all be fertilized, or she produces just one egg, but it divides shortly after fecundation, hence resulting in multiple embryos. Multiple births are nowadays more and more often as a result of infertility treatments such as In Vitro Fertilization. This is the procedure which “implants” more than one fertile egg in a womans womb, in hopes that at least one will be accepted by the body. Also, the use of fertility drugs can lead to multiple egg ovulation, hence multiple babies.

But how many babies can a womb carry?

As many of you are well aware, sextuplets (six babies at one shot) are no longer a rarity these days. In fact, more and more cases of women giving birth to 6 healthy babies are registered. But what would you say about 7 babies at once?
In 1997, the first medical case of surviving healthy septuplets was recorded in the United States. Three girls and four boys were born with sizes raging from 3 lbs and 4 ounces to just barely 15 ounces. Ironically, the smallest baby was the one who had no permanent health issues, but sadly, 2 of the babies have cerebral palsy.
You think 7 isn’t amazing enough? How about 8 babies at once?

In 1998 a set of octuplets was born inHouston,Texas. The first of the babies was delivered 15 weeks premature, while the remaining twins were kept inside the womb for two more weeks, and then delivered by a Caesarean section. Unfortunately, the tiniest of them died after just one week, but the remaining 7 are alive, well, and enjoying life.

Beyond 9 babies in the same womb…

So far, all of the reports of multiple babies beyond octuplets do not have happy endings. In 1999 a Malaysian woman gave birth to 9 babies, which were officially the most babies in one birth. Sadly all babies died within 6 hours of living.
The world record for a natural pregnancy is held by a woman in Argentina, who was pregnant with 12 embryos. Unfortunately, none of them were viable.
In 1971, a woman conceived no less than 15 babies, and delivered them all, not at once, with multiple Caesarean sections. Alas, all of the babies also died after birth.

The sad truth is that multiple babies usually involves complicated medical issues in the long run. And even though the babies survive birth, the facts prove that many end up suffering from different causes related to their crowded life in the womb.