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PREGNANCY WORLD RECORDS

Here are some amazing pregnancy world records, as recorded by guiness world records.

MOST FETUSES IN A HUMAN BODY = 15

On July 22, 1971, Dr Gennaro Montanino of Rome, Italy, announced he had removed the fetuses of ten girls and five boys from the womb of a 35-year-old housewife. A fertility drug was responsible for this occurrence. Dr Gennaro Montanino operated on the Rome housewife, whose identity was withheld to protect her, while she was in her fourth month of pregnancy. The unborn children were five inches long and five ounces in weight. The woman and her salesman husband already had an eight-year-old daughter born after similar hormone treatment and had asked doctors for another fertility treatment to have another child.

MOST SURVIVING CHILDREN FROM A SINGLE BIRTH = 7

A set of septuplets – four boys and three girls – were born to Bobbie McCaughey on November 19, 1997, at the University Hospital, Iowa, USA. Conceived by in vitro fertilization, the babies were delivered after 31 weeks by caesarean in the space of 16 minutes. Named Kenneth, Nathaniel, Brandon, Joel, Kelsey, Natalie and Alexis, they weighed between 1,048 g and 1,474.3 g (2 lb 5 oz and 3 lb 4 oz).

Another set of surviving septuplets were born eight weeks premature on 14 January 1998 to 40-year-old Hasna Mohammed Humair (Saudi Arabia). The four boys and three girls, the smallest of which weighed just under 907 g (2 lb), were born at the Abha Obstetric Hospital, Aseer. Already a mother of six, the unplanned pregnancy was the result of a fertility drug prescribed to regulate her menstrual cycle.

YOUNGEST PREGNANCY = 5 Years

Lina Medina, a Peruvian girl from the Andean village of Ticrapo made medical history when she gave birth to a boy by caesarean section in May 1939 at the age of five years, seven months and 21 days. Lina's parents initially thought their daughter had a large abdominal tumor, but after they took her to a hospital in the town of Pisco physicians confirmed that her abdominal swelling was due to pregnancy. Lina was eventually transferred to a hospital in Lima, where she delivered a six-pound baby boy by Cesarean section on 14 May 1939 (coincidentally the date on which Mother's Day was celebrated that year). Lina's father was temporarily jailed on suspicion of incest, but he was released for a lack of evidence and authorities were never able to determine who fathered Lina's child.

OLDEST PREGNANCY = 63 Years

A 63-year-old woman who lied about her age in order to be eligible for fertility treatment gave birth in 1996 to a healthy baby daughter. The woman delivered the 6-pound, 4-ounce baby girl by Caesarean section after undergoing in-vitro fertilization at the University of Southern California's clinic. The woman's 60-year-old husband provided the sperm and the eggs were donated. Dr. Richard Paulson, director of USC's Program for Assisted Reproduction, said that when the woman first approached doctors, she claimed to be 50 years old. She was, in fact, 60 at the time and did not become pregnant for three more years.

LONGEST GESTATION PERIOD = 660 - 760 Days (1.8 - 2 Years)

Gestation is the period of time between fertilization and birth in mammals. The longest gestation period for a mammal is that of the African elephant with an average of 660 days, and a maximum of 760 days.

SHORTEST GESTATION PERIOD = 13 Days

Gestation is the period of time between fertilization and birth in mammals. The shortest gestation period known is 12 to 13 days, shared by three marsupials (pouched mammals): the American opossum; the rare water opossum of central and northern South America; and the eastern native cat of Australia. The young of each of these marsupials are born while still immature and must complete their development in the pouch of their mother.

SMALLEST SURVIVING BABY = 11 Ounces

The smallest baby ever to have survived is thought to be Ambika Marula, born in 1998 in the United States. She was three months premature and weighed just over 11 ounces when doctors delivered her at Shady Grove Advent Hospital near Washington, DC.

YOUNGEST SURVIVING PREMATURE BABY = 22 Weeks

The youngest surviving premature baby according to the Guinness Book of Records is James Gill of Canada who was born after 22 weeks weighing 624 grams.