Her children are the meaning of her life!
In May 2015, 65-year-old Annegret Raunigk from Berlin shocked the world! She gave birth to four children – three boys and one girl. All of them were born prematurely in the sixth month of pregnancy, weighing less than one kilogram. Why did an elderly woman who had already given birth to 13 children decide to give birth again?
Late childbirth is not uncommon nowadays, but such a late birth and such a high birth rate caused a complex social reaction. Some were amazed by what Annegret did, others were inspired, and someone wrote on the Web: “This woman needs to see a specialist!”, Take her children away from her!”.
This is not Annegret Raunigk’s first record.
It is interesting to note that ten years before these births, Annegret had already become the oldest mother in German history.
Before that, no one knew about our heroine. She worked as an elementary school teacher, married five times, had twelve children and even became a grandmother. After retiring in 2005, she unexpectedly had another child.
The woman resorted to artificial insemination. At the age of 55, she became the mother of a healthy girl, whom she named Leila.
This story has received a lot of publicity. Not all fellow citizens welcomed the late motherhood of Annegret. Some condemned it for selfishness and irresponsibility.
But the birth of a child is a personal matter for every woman. And age is not a disadvantage, it’s just a figure in the passport, which everyone copes with in their own way.
Annegret took the condemnation calmly. On the contrary, she often participated in various talk shows and gave interviews to newspapers.
It all started with the fact that the youngest daughter of our heroine once told her mother that she wanted to have a brother or sister. The reason was clear – all her brothers and sisters had grown up. So at the age of 64, Annegret thought about becoming a mother for the 14th time.
In her home country, egg donation was prohibited by law. The woman asked for help in a hospital in Ukraine. In one of the clinics in Kyiv, the woman was implanted with an artificially fertilized egg from a donor.
Later she found out that she had four fertilized eggs implanted at once. The doctors were worried. There were too many of them, and her body was no longer young. There was a risk that she would not be able to carry the baby to term and would give birth with a very low body weight. The woman was advised to leave one or a maximum of two embryos. However, Annegret decided to refuse and keep all four.
Of course, German doctors and many people from the entourage of the mother with many children took the news about this pregnancy very negatively. Multiple pregnancies at this age entail all sorts of health problems. Even for a young woman it is difficult to give birth to quadruplets, and she became pregnant at the age of 64.
Despite all the risks, Annegret’s pregnancy proceeded well. She led a healthy lifestyle and gave birth very easily. But not everything went smoothly. Doctors had to perform a caesarean section and the children (boys Dries, Bence and Fjonn and a girl Neeta) were born prematurely, weighing less than one kilogram. The daughter, who weighed only 700 grams, was forced to undergo emergency surgery.
After the birth of the child, the family moved to the small town of Höxter, where Annegret lived in a more spacious house provided by the authorities. In addition, it was cheaper to live in the countryside than in the capital. For the birth of children, the woman received two awards from the German government.
Does she regret her actions? Annegret was asked this question several times by journalists. The woman does not try to hide the great difficulties: “I am constantly working, taking care of my children around the clock.”
The kids have turned into a real gang, running around the house all day, screaming and turning everything upside down. Annegret admits that she has very little time to think about herself.
Unfortunately, some of the doctors’ predictions came true: the quadruplets were diagnosed with health problems. One boy, for example, had a brain hemorrhage that affects his motor coordination, and the girl has vision problems. But the mother of 17 children does not regret her decision to give birth at 65, because all her children are the meaning of Annegret’s life.
