65-year-old grandmother Annegret Raunigk welcomes babies No. 14-17
At 65 years old, Annegret Raunigk welcomed her fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth children last week–making her the oldest woman to ever deliver quadruplets.
The German grandmother made headlines just last month when she announced her controversial pregnancy. She defended getting fertility treatments by saying she believed she was fit enough to avoid any problems with her pregnancy. She added, “I think one needs to decide for oneself and not listen too much to the opinions of others.”
She began having complications in the past few weeks, which led doctors to perform an emergency c-section when she was fewer than 26 weeks along. Germany’s RTL reports (via CNN) that Annegret’s three boys and one girl–Dries, Bence, Fjonn and Neeta–weigh a little more than 1 lb. each. They are in NICU, but have “good chance of surviving.”
Annegret’s older children range in age from 10 to the mid-40s. She said she decided to get IVF treatments in the Ukraine when her youngest daughter asked for a little brother or sister.
“I myself find life with children great,” she said last month. “You constantly have to live up to new challenges. And that probably also keeps you young.”
