Post-Mother's Day Post

Here are some Wow facts about Mothers that I didn't end up using for Mother's Day . . . 

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Youngest Mother

The youngest mother whose history is authenticated is Lina Medina (1933 - ), who delivered a boy by cesarean section in Lima, Peru in 1939, at an age of 5 years and 7 months. The child was raised as her brother and only discovered that Lina was his mother when he was 10. Medina has never revealed the father of the child nor the circumstances of her impregnation. A doctor who investigated the birth, Dr Escomel, suggested she might not actually know herself by writing that Medina "couldn't give precise responses". Although Lina's father was arrested on suspicion of child sexual abuse, he was later released due to lack of evidence, and the biological father who impregnated Lina was never identified. Medina's son grew up healthy and died in 1979 at the age of 40.

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Top 5 youngest mothers: 

Lina Medina (age 5) 

Yelizaveta Gryshchenko (age 6) 

Anna Mummenthaler (age 8) 

Maria Eulalia Allende (age 9) 

Samantha Goodman (aged 10) 

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Oldest Mother

Rajo Devi gave birth to a baby girl in 2008, becoming the world's oldest mother. She gave birth, following controversial IVF treatment, at the age of 69, then nearly died from complications with the delivery. In 2013 she declared that having her daughter, Naveen, has made her stronger and helped her live longer. Rajo, who lives in the remote village of Hissar, India, with Naveen, her husband Ballo and his second, younger wife Umi, said: 'The only reason I am still alive in spite of my illness is Naveen. She is a gift to me from God and until I get her married I cannot afford to die. I will get her married when she turns 15-years-old, but until then I simply cannot die.'

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The oldest verified mother to conceive naturally is Dawn Brooke (UK), who conceived a son at the age of 59 years in 1997 while taking estrogen.

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Most Surviving Children

Bobbie McCaughey is the mother who holds the record for the most surviving children from a single birth. She gave birth to the first set of surviving septuplets - four boys and three girls -on November 19, 1997, at the University Hospital, Iowa, US. Conceived by in vitro fertilization, the babies were delivered after 31 weeks by cesarean in the space of 16 minutes. The babies are named Kenneth, Nathaniel, Brandon, Joel, Kelsey, Natalie and Alexis. 

The McCaughey septuplets (clockwise from left) Brandon, Alexis, Joel, Nathan, Kenny Jr., Kelsey and Natalie - along with parents Bobbi (left) and Kenny Sr. (right), on the NBC Today Show, approaching their 18th birthdays in November 2015.

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Shortest Interval Between Two Children

Jayne Bleackley is the mother who holds the record for the shortest interval between two children born in separate confinements. She gave birth to Joseph Robert on September 3, 1999, and Annie Jessica Joyce on March 30, 2000. The babies were born 208 days apart. 

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Longest Interval Between Two Children

Elizabeth Ann Buttle is the mother who holds the record for the longest interval between the birth of two children. She gave birth to Belinda on May 19,1956 and Joseph on November 20, 1997. The babies were born 41 years 185 days apart. The mother was 60 years old when her son Joseph was born. 

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Highest Recorded Number of Children

The highest officially recorded number of children born to one mother is 69, to the first wife of Feodor Vassilyev (1707-1782) of Shuya, Russia. Between 1725 and 1765, in a total of 27 confinements, she gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets. 67 of them survived infancy. 

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Highest Number of Children in Modern Times

The modern world record for giving birth is held by Leontina Albina from San Antonio, Chile. Leontina claims to be the mother of 64 children, of which only 55 of them are documented. She has said that because she had been abandoned as an infant, she had pledged never to give up any children. When aged between 59 and 62 at the time of an interview with the Times, she said she was open to the prospect of more children, though she recognised that it would be a struggle: "If God sends them to me, yes. But I'd like God to also consider me, now that I'm approaching old age." She had tried birth control with an intrauterine device but it was not a success: "I got pregnant anyway and nearly died ... I think it was a punishment from God for doing something I shouldn't." 

Because it was unable to verify the exact number of her children, in 1991 Guinness decided to de-list Leontina's record. She died of diabetes in 1998. By this time, however, the Chilean authorities had become suspicious of her claims after she had recorded the birth of yet another child in 1995, at the age of 69 (while only three women have ever been recorded as giving birth past age 660. A police investigation found that she had actually given birth to only 14 children. The remainder had been recruited from the streets, given to her by poor women, or donated by her cousins. According to police inspector Cristina Rojo, Leontina had perpetrated the fraud to claim food assistance from the Chilean government. She had systematically registered the children in rural civic offices that lacked computerised records, to avoid detection. One of the children was in fact the product of an incestuous relationship between her husband Geraldo and one of the couple's granddaughters. Geraldo, by then probably in his 90s, was said to be a fugitive, while the police were reported to be investigating a number of the couple's other children and relatives for having taken part in the fraud.