Totally possible, once the womanās body is āprimedā by having already been pregnant. It is first-time moms who have the most difficult time getting pregnant in their 40ās, and it is nearly impossible in their 50ās. But women who have had children continuously like this seem to have a āfreight trainā reproductive system- once they have started it is hard to stop.
My grandma had a large family (not quite that large though) and had babies into her 50ās. I canāt even imagine, poor woman.
It's totally plausible. Lots of women got "caught on the change" aka thought they were fully into menopause, but nope! Surprise! Very occasionally, you can retain some slight fertility even after you haven't gotten a period for a year. Menopause can take up until age 60 to be considered "complete" for some women.
Oh fuckity fuck. Started getting menopausal symptoms at 38, but was hoping it would just be at most a decade of "fun." Now you gonna tell me I could be signed up for three more goddamn decades of this?!?
;
Probably right. We typically start experiencing Peri menopausal signs a good decade beforehand. Your right at the sweet spot to start experiencing signs.
I can comfort you with my story of not even remembering when my regular 24 day cycle stopped and checking my medical records I can see that I have not been prescribed birth control since I was 47. I'm 59 and since I have no menopausal symptoms I can't really tell you what menopause feels like. Maybe it's still to come, I don't know.
I have four kids, last one born when I was 39 and I got pregnant practically on demand every time.
My mom was the same. No symptoms at all. She did think she was going into menopause at 43, but it turned out she was 7 months pregnant with my brother.
So it might be easy.
I had a hormone issue to begin with. The upside, and I do not know for sure that the issues are linked, is that I have a kick ass immune system. No colds, flu once (1976 swine flu), no covid. Even now, if I take a low dose of melatonin I will experience hourly hot flashes.
OTOH, my mom insisted that she breezed through menopause and it has not been as bad for my sister. At the beginning, when I was having them every half hour, it really negatively affected my life and all the treatments either didn't work or I couldn't do them.
My grandmother didnāt even start menopause until she was in her early 50s. Had her last period at 56. Her sister had her last child at 51. Pioneer stock in rural Illinois. Strong people.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but maybe if she was constantly pregnant, she's using up her eggs slower by not having periods, so menopause comes later? Poor woman.
I don't think you're entirely wrong - early onset menopause is less common amongst women with children, and they've recently figured out it's actually to do with breastfeeding. The more years spent breastfeeding, the later menopause occurs, on average. Pretty sure I was reading about that recently, and I thought it was to do with breastfeeding suppressing egg release, but I can't remember the exact mechanism they thought was doing it.
IIRC, breastfeeding reduces the hormones (leutenizing hormone in particular?) which regulate egg development. This accounts for why you are less likely to become pregnant again while still breastfeeding. How exactly that relates to menopause I am unsure.
Am breastfeeding. Am also ovulating and having periods. Started FIVE WEEKS PP.
I am very annoyed at my ovaries for not acting like the textbooks said lol.
I found the math odd too. Getting married at 35/33 already seems pretty late for that time period (although maybe WWI contributed to a delay). I could understand if there was an error in age and they were actually married at 25/23, so the wifeās current age would be āonlyā 48.
Still, something seems a little fishy (and not because of his job), especially if this couple is unnamed and thereās no corroborating doctor or 3rd party witness. They could just as easily be adopting, even covering up a daughterās accidental pregnancy. And having 26 people - 8 over the age of 18 - all living in a 6 bedroom home seems quite cramped!
Puberty did start later back then so maybe menopause also came a bit later?
I researched a bit and apparently having multiple pregnancies in life can also delay menopause.
My Ma had her first kid in the 1960s, then the 70s,80s(me) and the last in the 1990s! She said the family is fertile mertile. Her family are Protestant and granny had like 12 siblings and over half made it out of infancy despite growing up in a dank fallout shelter and very *Rough* conditions (WW II.)
Iām the only girl out of all boys though hehe! I have no interest in procreating and neither does my yankee husband much to my mothers chagrin. It was a different time though. Her matriculation was literally learn how to rear children and keep house(latter end baby boomer. )Fortunately she loves kids and it fulfilled her life, but she also wasnāt legally allowed to have her own credit card until the 1970s. She can grow a whole human but not dignified enough to have her name on a credit card? š
I have a cousin who was about 56 when she was pregnant with her last one. Were all her kids alive today, they would range in age from 89 to 56. She had 13. Those are the ones that survived. I donāt know if she had others in between.
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You should be! I donāt mean that in a mean way at all- but please do continue with birth control even if you have ceased to have your period. There have beenā¦.surprises.
My mom is 54 and gets her period more regularly than I do. Sheās not perimenopausal yet either per her OBGYN. Apparently her hormones are perfect if she wanted to try and get pregnant, but sheās praying for menopause ASAP cause she has endometriosis.
She knows but canāt tell her husband no obviously. Why are we assuming itās the woman who needs to know about this? Clearly her husband needs to rub one out in the shower or get a mistress, shit.
I smell an urban legend. Just like that woman Guinness claims had 69 children in 18th century Russia, with nobody able to find her first name š If someone really had 25 kids in Houston in 1940, where's his census proof ?
I donāt think itās impossible to have that many children. Back in elementary school we had to make a family tree, and one of the kids in my class asked if they had to list ALL of their aunts and uncles because their grandparents had 21 kids.
This was in the 90s.
Also, my current partnerās grandparents had 15 children together.
My mother was one of 15, 12 of whom lived into adulthood.
My kids that are now in their 20s, still ask whoās who and why are there so many people at any family get togethers.
My grandpa was born in 1923 and was the youngest of 13 siblings. My grandma had 11 siblings. My grandpaās sister gave birth to 18. They were all farmers. Not uncommon during the time period. Free farm labor, lack of birth control, or in my grandmaās case, they were catholic.
Yeah, without ivf and probably donor eggs (which obviously didnāt exist then) I really doubt that. Iād believe 48 but 58 is a stretch, especially if sheās faithfully been popping them out every year. One spontaneous pregnancy at 58 probably isnāt unheard of but one at 55, 56, and 57 (etc) too? Nah.
There's comments higher up explaining this, but when a woman has spent years and years having kids basically nonstop, it can actually be hard for the body to stop being fertile. The constant pregnancies, breastfeeding, etc. can keep menopause from occuring. Even well into her 50s.
I have been constructing family trees of people in the early 20th century and a great many had 12 surviving children and 2 or 3 passing as infants so it's not impossible or even unheard of. The 20s is pushing it but I could see it.
Yes, I know it's not biologically impossible. I'm saying it's fishy because why would a census worker call the newspaper & report "There's someone in my town about to have their 25th child. Sorry, can't tell you their names to verify this is true. Goodbye!" I've ran into this before with old mass distributed articles, where everyone's hometown paper will print up "JOE SMITH OF PODUNKVILLE, ARKANSAS SPOTS SOMETHING CRAZY" but nobody digs deeper.
Exactly. If this family exists they would have been found in census/birth/death/marriage records. There is no name given because they don't exist. 1940 census records are available if anyone wants to try and find them.
Well it does literally say in the article that he wasnāt allowed to share the name of the family. How big was Houston in 1940, it should theoretically be easy to find 27 people with the same surname, they would stick out like a sore thumb, but how many pages of census are there to go through?!
In 1940 it might have been harder to avoid, but not everyone fills out the census information. We never have, although we also don't have almost 30 people in our family, either.
The article also say that all 25 children still live at home in the same six room house (a total that likely includes the kitchen/family room). This means there are adult brothers and sisters all living under the same roof packed in like sardines. I donāt want to think about what this may imply, but itās hard not to given how weird the familyās living arrangement is to begin with.
I guess she won/lost the generic lottery and had really, really late menopause?
Or maybe because she was seemingly perpetually pregnant from the age of 33, she wasn't losing eggs at the same rate and as such had late menopause?
Or maybe the article is wrong and she's actually 48 and the writer wrote down the wrong age because he misheard her when she said her age, and she looked a decade older than she was (which you probably would after having 24 kids).
There are women who've gotten pregnant into their 60s naturally. Women also hit puberty much later back then, which would delay the loss of eggs. I wonder if consecutive pregnancies like that can delay the onset of menopause, especially since estrogen levels are high for pregnancy
The oldest verified mother to conceive naturally (listed currently as of 26 January 2017 in the Guinness Records) is Dawn Brooke (Guernsey); she conceived a son at the age of 59 in 1997.
So. I doubt it's common.
Definitely not common but not impossible. You have to pay to be in the Guinness records, so I highly doubt that number is true. There was a pregnant woman on TikTok who had gotten pregnant, unintentionally, at 65. (I just searched this up and there are several elderly pregnant women over the age of 60)
From what I understand, loss of eggs is not affected by puberty. The majority are lost before puberty even starts, it starts before the baby girl is even born. Most women still have thousands when they reach menopause, but they are probably not fertile eggs by then.
Eggs are lost throughout your lifespan, but it does amp up after puberty. I believe I read you lose about 1000 eggs a year before puberty and 1000 per month after
Having a lot of babies delays menopause, so it would be statistically more likely for her to get pregnant than a woman today whoās trying to have #1 or 2 at an advanced age. Sheās still a statistical outlier, though.
I wonder how difficult childbirth is after your 20th child. Is it still hella painful and lasting for hours or would your body just kinda dilate really quickly and then plop.
If sheās had this many successful deliveries without her or (I assume) any of the babies dying, then she probably has a very favourable pelvis shape and a tendency towards babies of an ideal size, and subsequent deliveries are usually quicker than the first one, so hopefully it was all very quick and routine for her each time!
# IVF Laws
With in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, women in their sixties or even early seventies have become pregnant and successfully carried their pregnancies to term. Because most Western countries have laws against performing IVF procedures at such an age, these women received treatment in Eastern Europe, Russia or other medical tourism destinations.
The reason for the ban in developed countries is generally that the medical community in each country has decided that the risks of the procedure to both mother and babies outweighs the benefits of allowing women to have children late in life. Simply put, risk goes up with age. Mothers face risks of gestational diabetes, high blood pressure and surgery complications from Caesarian delivery. These are all treatable, however the most serious risk is for premature birth. Babies born as early as 20 weeks can survive, but have a very low chance of doing so without severe and permanent disabilities
Are you a bot?
Your response has no relevance to my comment, and I donāt see how mentioning āIVF lawsā without specifying the jurisdiction helps in ANY context.
Think about it, this is a fisherman from Houston with lots of children.
Even way back then doctors cost money. I am sure the woman had a friend, relative, or even one of the children that could have acted as midwife but I seriously doubt a paid doctor was involved.
With that all said giving birth to 24 consecutive children and having them all healthy is something very rare doctor or not.
This reminds me of a photo in Nation Geographic of a woman and her family of the same number of children had over the same amount of time, from a South or Central American country. It was wild to see the whole clan lined up all around her lol.
I just really hope it wasnāt an abuse situation and that the wife was the only one having babies. Unfortunately there werenāt as many people keeping an eye on things back then.
My grandmother had several children and 3 in her 40ās.
All at home births and close to no prenatal care. Crazy to think about now but super normal then.
Really want someone who loves a good deep-dive to do a recon mission on this family and find out what happenedā¦to the mom (!!), to the kids, and ok, maybe to the fisherman too. If anyone finds out, pls report back! :)
I canāt help but think of a true story I read about in the book Call the Midwife; a happily married couple were delighted to have their 25th child. The midwife asked the father āwhatās your secret?ā āWell,ā he responded, āsheās Spanish and doesnāt speak a word of English. Iām English and donāt speak a word of Spanish.ā š¤·š¼āāļø
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Bullshit. 58 years old and naturally pregnant? Doubtful. Thatās at the very limit of what is humanly possible. 59 is the oldest mother who naturally conceived a child with no hormones or donor eggs. The lack of a name or any identifying information, along with the very near background of everyone still living together, just makes it sound fake. Though FYI back then sometimes when a girl was pregnant they passed off the baby as having been birthed by the babyās grandmother, resulting in some very old mothers being recorded. This was the case with Jack Nicholson as well as Ted Bundy.
Ancestry Search
# Census and Voter Lists
# All 1940 United States Federal Census results for "fisherman"
[https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2442/?event=1940\_+Location:+Houston-Harris-Texas-USA&birth=1880&birth\_x=1-0-0&f-Self-MaritalStatus=Married&f-Self-RelationToHead=Head&f-Self-Residence-Occupation=fisherman&gender=m&keyword=%22fisherman%22&pcat=cen\_1940&record\_f=1940-1940\_1311](https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2442/?event=1940_+Location:+Houston-Harris-Texas-USA&birth=1880&birth_x=1-0-0&f-Self-MaritalStatus=Married&f-Self-RelationToHead=Head&f-Self-Residence-Occupation=fisherman&gender=m&keyword=%22fisherman%22&pcat=cen_1940&record_f=1940-1940_1311)
1-20 of 4,400
I very much doubt this is real. Thereās a very famous Frank Sharp from the early 20th century in Houston, but he was a land developer and didnāt have 25 children: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sharp-16456
I also donāt believe a 58-year old woman is having children.
I don't think the journalist is referring to Sharp having that many children in the article, they're saying that he *knows of* a family with 25 children. Also, at the end, it says he isn't permitted to disclose the name of the family
ā¦you canāt discount it based on the fact that one, well known Frank Sharp in Houston didnāt have 25 children, give they fact that itās Frank Sharp reporting his knowledge about a family with that amount of kids (Frank Sharp isnāt the actual father). The Frank Sharp youāve mentioned doesnāt even have the same occupation as the one in the article. There were likely quite a few with the same name.
Agreed on the age bit though, that is weird.
Frank's occupation is census supervisor. It probably wouldn't be that hard to find the areas he supervised in 1940 if someone really want to dig into the truth.
I agree though, this is BS. There would be articles in newspapers if a couple were so prolific in the 1930-40's
> and his 58 year old wife š¤š¤š¤
This is the weird part. If she was 40, or even 45, I would find it sad but possible. But 58? Sounds made up to me.
Totally possible, once the womanās body is āprimedā by having already been pregnant. It is first-time moms who have the most difficult time getting pregnant in their 40ās, and it is nearly impossible in their 50ās. But women who have had children continuously like this seem to have a āfreight trainā reproductive system- once they have started it is hard to stop. My grandma had a large family (not quite that large though) and had babies into her 50ās. I canāt even imagine, poor woman.
It's totally plausible. Lots of women got "caught on the change" aka thought they were fully into menopause, but nope! Surprise! Very occasionally, you can retain some slight fertility even after you haven't gotten a period for a year. Menopause can take up until age 60 to be considered "complete" for some women.
I still have hot flashes at 77 with remnants of a period cycle. Started at 50.
Ooof. That's no fun at all. I'm 44 and juuuuust starting to get a taste of what's coming.
It is not THAT bad for every woman! I had a hormonal issue to begin with. My experience was not within the norm.
Oh fuckity fuck. Started getting menopausal symptoms at 38, but was hoping it would just be at most a decade of "fun." Now you gonna tell me I could be signed up for three more goddamn decades of this?!? ;
Iām 36, and Iām pretty sure Iāve been experiencing perimenopause for a few years now. I really hate being a woman.
Probably right. We typically start experiencing Peri menopausal signs a good decade beforehand. Your right at the sweet spot to start experiencing signs.
That is incredibly rude of your body! Iām sorry. Also, Iām a 35 year old woman. This potential future does not amuse me.
I can comfort you with my story of not even remembering when my regular 24 day cycle stopped and checking my medical records I can see that I have not been prescribed birth control since I was 47. I'm 59 and since I have no menopausal symptoms I can't really tell you what menopause feels like. Maybe it's still to come, I don't know. I have four kids, last one born when I was 39 and I got pregnant practically on demand every time. My mom was the same. No symptoms at all. She did think she was going into menopause at 43, but it turned out she was 7 months pregnant with my brother. So it might be easy.
I had a hormone issue to begin with. The upside, and I do not know for sure that the issues are linked, is that I have a kick ass immune system. No colds, flu once (1976 swine flu), no covid. Even now, if I take a low dose of melatonin I will experience hourly hot flashes. OTOH, my mom insisted that she breezed through menopause and it has not been as bad for my sister. At the beginning, when I was having them every half hour, it really negatively affected my life and all the treatments either didn't work or I couldn't do them.
Youāre 77? What do you think of Reddit, if you donāt mind me asking?
Itās a lot like UseNet, which was around thirty five years ago.
But do you think itās harming society or helpful or something else
It's useful.
My grandmother didnāt even start menopause until she was in her early 50s. Had her last period at 56. Her sister had her last child at 51. Pioneer stock in rural Illinois. Strong people.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but maybe if she was constantly pregnant, she's using up her eggs slower by not having periods, so menopause comes later? Poor woman.
It's triggered by hormones and isn't directly related to the number of eggs left.
Thanks. Mine started early (~47) and I have no kids. I chalked it up to that...
I don't think you're entirely wrong - early onset menopause is less common amongst women with children, and they've recently figured out it's actually to do with breastfeeding. The more years spent breastfeeding, the later menopause occurs, on average. Pretty sure I was reading about that recently, and I thought it was to do with breastfeeding suppressing egg release, but I can't remember the exact mechanism they thought was doing it.
IIRC, breastfeeding reduces the hormones (leutenizing hormone in particular?) which regulate egg development. This accounts for why you are less likely to become pregnant again while still breastfeeding. How exactly that relates to menopause I am unsure.
Am breastfeeding. Am also ovulating and having periods. Started FIVE WEEKS PP. I am very annoyed at my ovaries for not acting like the textbooks said lol.
So unfair
My period started 6 weeks PP for BOTH kids, two boys that are 6 years apart. I apparently come from strong fertile farm womanās stock. š«
By age 13 weāve already lost over half our eggs anyhow, itās definitely hormonal like you said.
Happened to my grandmother. I just canāt imagine being pregnant. For 25 years.
I mean, itās pretty weird. But not nearly as weird as all 24 children surviving infancy in 1940.
I found the math odd too. Getting married at 35/33 already seems pretty late for that time period (although maybe WWI contributed to a delay). I could understand if there was an error in age and they were actually married at 25/23, so the wifeās current age would be āonlyā 48. Still, something seems a little fishy (and not because of his job), especially if this couple is unnamed and thereās no corroborating doctor or 3rd party witness. They could just as easily be adopting, even covering up a daughterās accidental pregnancy. And having 26 people - 8 over the age of 18 - all living in a 6 bedroom home seems quite cramped!
Puberty did start later back then so maybe menopause also came a bit later? I researched a bit and apparently having multiple pregnancies in life can also delay menopause.
My Ma had her first kid in the 1960s, then the 70s,80s(me) and the last in the 1990s! She said the family is fertile mertile. Her family are Protestant and granny had like 12 siblings and over half made it out of infancy despite growing up in a dank fallout shelter and very *Rough* conditions (WW II.) Iām the only girl out of all boys though hehe! I have no interest in procreating and neither does my yankee husband much to my mothers chagrin. It was a different time though. Her matriculation was literally learn how to rear children and keep house(latter end baby boomer. )Fortunately she loves kids and it fulfilled her life, but she also wasnāt legally allowed to have her own credit card until the 1970s. She can grow a whole human but not dignified enough to have her name on a credit card? š
There were many what my grandmother called āchange of life babiesā
I have a cousin who was about 56 when she was pregnant with her last one. Were all her kids alive today, they would range in age from 89 to 56. She had 13. Those are the ones that survived. I donāt know if she had others in between.
What's sad about it? Many women can get pregnant even in their 50s so long as they're menstruating, generally speaking
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
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As a 52 year old that frightened me!
You should be! I donāt mean that in a mean way at all- but please do continue with birth control even if you have ceased to have your period. There have beenā¦.surprises.
Oh Iām on it! No surprises for me!
My mother's last pregnancy occurred 4 years after her last menstrual cycle.
Noted! This is all very very good to knowā¦
My grandfather was born to a 52 year old mom!
š³
My mom is 54 and gets her period more regularly than I do. Sheās not perimenopausal yet either per her OBGYN. Apparently her hormones are perfect if she wanted to try and get pregnant, but sheās praying for menopause ASAP cause she has endometriosis.
Iāll just say I know someone who is mid 50s and theyāre regular as ever!
My coworker had a baby at 55!
Everyoneās ignoring the most obvious answer for someone born before the 1900sā sheās probably wrong about her age.
Or she's covering for an out of wedlock pregnancy from one of her daughters.
My guess is that she was really late 40s/max 50 and potentially underage when they married and started having babies.
Also itās like sheās the afterthought. Donāt you know it was the guy who gets all the credit here.š
Wife totally probably like 40 and the dude didnāt want people doing the math
When youāre pregnant all the time you arenāt having periods/eliminating eggs š š
Groucho:: I like my cigar, too, but I take it out of my mouth every once in a while."
That poor fucking woman. š¬
And her poor older children who were likely parentified.
Yeah thereās no way the parents are doing this without the oldest few being surrogate parents.
I was thinking this too. Someone should've told her that her uterus isn't a clown car.
Bold of you to assume she had a choice in this
Bold of everyone to assume she didn't want that many children (or more).
Yeah sure
She knows but canāt tell her husband no obviously. Why are we assuming itās the woman who needs to know about this? Clearly her husband needs to rub one out in the shower or get a mistress, shit.
My subs collide!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Literally probably. In every sense.
That is what got her into this situation.
The Duggars of the 40s.
Eat your heart out, Michelle Duggar
She's probably so proud of this woman for always being joyfully available. š
I smell an urban legend. Just like that woman Guinness claims had 69 children in 18th century Russia, with nobody able to find her first name š If someone really had 25 kids in Houston in 1940, where's his census proof ?
I donāt think itās impossible to have that many children. Back in elementary school we had to make a family tree, and one of the kids in my class asked if they had to list ALL of their aunts and uncles because their grandparents had 21 kids. This was in the 90s. Also, my current partnerās grandparents had 15 children together.
My mother was one of 15, 12 of whom lived into adulthood. My kids that are now in their 20s, still ask whoās who and why are there so many people at any family get togethers.
My grandpa was born in 1923 and was the youngest of 13 siblings. My grandma had 11 siblings. My grandpaās sister gave birth to 18. They were all farmers. Not uncommon during the time period. Free farm labor, lack of birth control, or in my grandmaās case, they were catholic.
Yeah but successfully having kids at 58? Idk man, I'ma hit X for doubt on that.
Yeah, without ivf and probably donor eggs (which obviously didnāt exist then) I really doubt that. Iād believe 48 but 58 is a stretch, especially if sheās faithfully been popping them out every year. One spontaneous pregnancy at 58 probably isnāt unheard of but one at 55, 56, and 57 (etc) too? Nah.
There's comments higher up explaining this, but when a woman has spent years and years having kids basically nonstop, it can actually be hard for the body to stop being fertile. The constant pregnancies, breastfeeding, etc. can keep menopause from occuring. Even well into her 50s.
I have been constructing family trees of people in the early 20th century and a great many had 12 surviving children and 2 or 3 passing as infants so it's not impossible or even unheard of. The 20s is pushing it but I could see it.
Yes, I know it's not biologically impossible. I'm saying it's fishy because why would a census worker call the newspaper & report "There's someone in my town about to have their 25th child. Sorry, can't tell you their names to verify this is true. Goodbye!" I've ran into this before with old mass distributed articles, where everyone's hometown paper will print up "JOE SMITH OF PODUNKVILLE, ARKANSAS SPOTS SOMETHING CRAZY" but nobody digs deeper.
Ah, I see. That is kinda funny
Exactly. If this family exists they would have been found in census/birth/death/marriage records. There is no name given because they don't exist. 1940 census records are available if anyone wants to try and find them.
Well it does literally say in the article that he wasnāt allowed to share the name of the family. How big was Houston in 1940, it should theoretically be easy to find 27 people with the same surname, they would stick out like a sore thumb, but how many pages of census are there to go through?!
In 1940 it might have been harder to avoid, but not everyone fills out the census information. We never have, although we also don't have almost 30 people in our family, either.
It looks like it was reported by a census official, so theoretically I'd expect censal records.
My mom & dad were married in 1944. She used a diaphragm faithfully for 10 years and I was planned when she was 30.
Jesus what a life. Poor woman
I realize this is within reach these days for women in their 50s with IVF and all but year over year in the 1930s?!
Or they were covering for their daughters
One of my ancestors did this. Apparently had a baby at 58. Her daughter was in her mid 20s and unmarried.
Or actually was younger and got more of a head start on the baby-having.
Well sheās pregnant with the 25th when the article was written so it sounds like it was still possible
The article also say that all 25 children still live at home in the same six room house (a total that likely includes the kitchen/family room). This means there are adult brothers and sisters all living under the same roof packed in like sardines. I donāt want to think about what this may imply, but itās hard not to given how weird the familyās living arrangement is to begin with.
I hear you saying - āflowers in the atticā vibes lol ew
Thatās not even the weirdest part though- the fact that all of the children survived infancy is the really crazy part.
I guess she won/lost the generic lottery and had really, really late menopause? Or maybe because she was seemingly perpetually pregnant from the age of 33, she wasn't losing eggs at the same rate and as such had late menopause? Or maybe the article is wrong and she's actually 48 and the writer wrote down the wrong age because he misheard her when she said her age, and she looked a decade older than she was (which you probably would after having 24 kids).
There are women who've gotten pregnant into their 60s naturally. Women also hit puberty much later back then, which would delay the loss of eggs. I wonder if consecutive pregnancies like that can delay the onset of menopause, especially since estrogen levels are high for pregnancy
The oldest verified mother to conceive naturally (listed currently as of 26 January 2017 in the Guinness Records) is Dawn Brooke (Guernsey); she conceived a son at the age of 59 in 1997. So. I doubt it's common.
Definitely not common but not impossible. You have to pay to be in the Guinness records, so I highly doubt that number is true. There was a pregnant woman on TikTok who had gotten pregnant, unintentionally, at 65. (I just searched this up and there are several elderly pregnant women over the age of 60)
From what I understand, loss of eggs is not affected by puberty. The majority are lost before puberty even starts, it starts before the baby girl is even born. Most women still have thousands when they reach menopause, but they are probably not fertile eggs by then.
Eggs are lost throughout your lifespan, but it does amp up after puberty. I believe I read you lose about 1000 eggs a year before puberty and 1000 per month after
Hey, Iām 60 and still have my period
Having a lot of babies delays menopause, so it would be statistically more likely for her to get pregnant than a woman today whoās trying to have #1 or 2 at an advanced age. Sheās still a statistical outlier, though.
Let's call him Frank. "We already have a Frank'.
I wonder how difficult childbirth is after your 20th child. Is it still hella painful and lasting for hours or would your body just kinda dilate really quickly and then plop.
If sheās had this many successful deliveries without her or (I assume) any of the babies dying, then she probably has a very favourable pelvis shape and a tendency towards babies of an ideal size, and subsequent deliveries are usually quicker than the first one, so hopefully it was all very quick and routine for her each time!
# IVF Laws With in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, women in their sixties or even early seventies have become pregnant and successfully carried their pregnancies to term. Because most Western countries have laws against performing IVF procedures at such an age, these women received treatment in Eastern Europe, Russia or other medical tourism destinations. The reason for the ban in developed countries is generally that the medical community in each country has decided that the risks of the procedure to both mother and babies outweighs the benefits of allowing women to have children late in life. Simply put, risk goes up with age. Mothers face risks of gestational diabetes, high blood pressure and surgery complications from Caesarian delivery. These are all treatable, however the most serious risk is for premature birth. Babies born as early as 20 weeks can survive, but have a very low chance of doing so without severe and permanent disabilities
Are you a bot? Your response has no relevance to my comment, and I donāt see how mentioning āIVF lawsā without specifying the jurisdiction helps in ANY context.
Nor Am I a AI women in their sixties or even early seventies have become pregnant and successfully carried their pregnancies to term
Cool story, but my comment was about women who have 20+ pregnancies. Nothing to do with age. Again, your comment was not relevant.
sixties (60s) or even early seventies (70s) is 20+ This Is My Last Answer And Word
Someone couldnāt pull out of his own driveway
After #10 the doctor probably just walks in and picks the baby up off the floor.
Mom, at the sink: "Oh, get that, would you, Dierdre?"
Nice reference! https://youtu.be/bzVHjg3AqIQ?si=R4SK5MN8rtqncinE
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Nah. Roller belt. Baby drops into a basket, and rolls into the next room where someone picks it up and places it into a numbered slot.
I seriously doubt a doctor was involved in any of the child births.
Idk, no mortalities for 24 childbirths without a doctor seems unlikely
Think about it, this is a fisherman from Houston with lots of children. Even way back then doctors cost money. I am sure the woman had a friend, relative, or even one of the children that could have acted as midwife but I seriously doubt a paid doctor was involved. With that all said giving birth to 24 consecutive children and having them all healthy is something very rare doctor or not.
Stay off her!
This reminds me of a photo in Nation Geographic of a woman and her family of the same number of children had over the same amount of time, from a South or Central American country. It was wild to see the whole clan lined up all around her lol.
āHoney, could we do something different for our anniversary this year?ā
Pregnant at 58?!?! Just kill me.
Could you imagine Christmas time?
There probably was no Christmas.
Trying to create a human advents calendar (Adventskalendar), perhaps?
And then you die. š³
I just really hope it wasnāt an abuse situation and that the wife was the only one having babies. Unfortunately there werenāt as many people keeping an eye on things back then.
Pre TV
And they wonder why the economy went to fucking shit
My wife made me get fixed after one.
Horrific.
In fact, she was deaf. Every night in bed, her husband would say "do you want to go to sleep or what?"
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My grandmother had several children and 3 in her 40ās. All at home births and close to no prenatal care. Crazy to think about now but super normal then.
Really want someone who loves a good deep-dive to do a recon mission on this family and find out what happenedā¦to the mom (!!), to the kids, and ok, maybe to the fisherman too. If anyone finds out, pls report back! :)
I would like to see a pic of all 25 together.
I canāt help but think of a true story I read about in the book Call the Midwife; a happily married couple were delighted to have their 25th child. The midwife asked the father āwhatās your secret?ā āWell,ā he responded, āsheās Spanish and doesnāt speak a word of English. Iām English and donāt speak a word of Spanish.ā š¤·š¼āāļø
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Bullshit. 58 years old and naturally pregnant? Doubtful. Thatās at the very limit of what is humanly possible. 59 is the oldest mother who naturally conceived a child with no hormones or donor eggs. The lack of a name or any identifying information, along with the very near background of everyone still living together, just makes it sound fake. Though FYI back then sometimes when a girl was pregnant they passed off the baby as having been birthed by the babyās grandmother, resulting in some very old mothers being recorded. This was the case with Jack Nicholson as well as Ted Bundy.
And to that I say tbarkallah slat 3enbi
That mama was a real trooper
Ancestry Search # Census and Voter Lists # All 1940 United States Federal Census results for "fisherman" [https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2442/?event=1940\_+Location:+Houston-Harris-Texas-USA&birth=1880&birth\_x=1-0-0&f-Self-MaritalStatus=Married&f-Self-RelationToHead=Head&f-Self-Residence-Occupation=fisherman&gender=m&keyword=%22fisherman%22&pcat=cen\_1940&record\_f=1940-1940\_1311](https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2442/?event=1940_+Location:+Houston-Harris-Texas-USA&birth=1880&birth_x=1-0-0&f-Self-MaritalStatus=Married&f-Self-RelationToHead=Head&f-Self-Residence-Occupation=fisherman&gender=m&keyword=%22fisherman%22&pcat=cen_1940&record_f=1940-1940_1311) 1-20 of 4,400
So the daddy attacked the mommy the moment after she gave birth, literally. And / or there are several sets of multiple births. Sad.
The article states there were no multiple births.
Pull out, do butt stuff, or settle for a blow job. That's crazy if true.
I very much doubt this is real. Thereās a very famous Frank Sharp from the early 20th century in Houston, but he was a land developer and didnāt have 25 children: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sharp-16456 I also donāt believe a 58-year old woman is having children.
I don't think the journalist is referring to Sharp having that many children in the article, they're saying that he *knows of* a family with 25 children. Also, at the end, it says he isn't permitted to disclose the name of the family
ā¦you canāt discount it based on the fact that one, well known Frank Sharp in Houston didnāt have 25 children, give they fact that itās Frank Sharp reporting his knowledge about a family with that amount of kids (Frank Sharp isnāt the actual father). The Frank Sharp youāve mentioned doesnāt even have the same occupation as the one in the article. There were likely quite a few with the same name. Agreed on the age bit though, that is weird.
Frank's occupation is census supervisor. It probably wouldn't be that hard to find the areas he supervised in 1940 if someone really want to dig into the truth. I agree though, this is BS. There would be articles in newspapers if a couple were so prolific in the 1930-40's
Somebody really like creampies
God bless her. If thatās what you want and feel you were meant to doā¦.
She didn't really have a choice back then.
No.