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The Russian Woman Who Gave Birth to 69 Children
Valentina Vassilyeva holds the Guinness World Record for most children born to one mother.
Valentina Vassilyeva was the first wife of Feodor Vassilyev; the Russian couple lived in Shuya Russia in the first half of the 1700s. According to records, Valentina lived to be 75 years old and during her life, gave birth to a total of 69 children as a result of 27 pregnancies (16 sets of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets). One set of her twins died in infancy, leaving her with 67 surviving children. Valentina holds the Guinness World Record for most children born to one mother.
A Historically Prolific Couple
Not much is known about Valentina’s life apart from her giving birth to 69 children; she lived during the time of the Russian Empire, a feudalist society, which made her a serf. During this time, peasant life in Russia was extremely harsh, which is primarily why families aimed to be as large as possible; however, even by those standards, the Vassilyev family was very big.
Valentina spent a staggering 18 years of her life being pregnant. The names of her surviving children have disappeared from history mostly because the family’s record-keeping was not accurate or efficient. There are…
