65-Year-Old Mum-of-17 Becomes World’s Oldest Mum of Quadruplets

Mum of 17, from Berlin, Germany, Annegret Raunigk, 65, who welcomed quadruplets in May (read here) has became the oldest woman in the world to give birth to quadruplets.

Annegret, whose oldest child is 44, delivered her four babies via Caesarian section after just six-and-a-half months. The tiny babies spent months in an extremely delicate health, connected to breathing tubes in incubators. But, after growing ‘wonderfully in a short time’, they are strong enough to leave Berlin’s Charite Hospital and will go home by the end of the month.

The babies have now propelled their mother into the history books and earned her the scorn of millions.

‘It was my daughter Leila who suggested it,’ she said of the quest for motherhood at an age when most senior ladies would confess they could think of nothing worse.

‘”I want a brother or sister!” she said. She got a bit of a shock when I told her there were four babies on the way.’

Leila persuaded the retired English and Russian teacher to seek fertility treatment in Ukraine because she wanted a sibling to play with.

Annegret was forced to travel to Kiev as doctors in Germany refused to give her IVF treatment, because they were concerned that her body wouldn’t be strong enough to survive the stress of pregnancy and giving birth.

In Ukraine, doctors agreed to use a donated egg and donated sperm to artificially inseminate her – a process which is illegal in Germany.

But even Annegret admitted to being ‘shocked’ when the ultrasound scan revealed she was carrying quadruplets.

‘I sleep very little but I know I can take care of them,’ said Annegret, who will move from Berlin to a country home 300 miles west of the city to raise her new brood.

Married just once, and the matriarch of a clan of 17 created through five different fathers – not including the donated sperm – said she doesn’t think much of men and says ‘there aren’t many who would fit the bill’ in helping to raise the new additions.

‘My experience with men was that I never found the right one,’ she said.

Annegret is no stranger to the spotlight: she appeared on the Gunther Jauch show back in 2005 with her extended brood after she gave birth to her youngest daughter, Leila, who turned ten this year.

Back then she was celebrated as Germany’s Eldest Mum. Now opinion is divided as to whether she should be regarded as a feminist icon…or a freak.

Annegret is now a mother of 17 children, with the oldest being 44, and a grandmother of seven.

Source: DailyMail