Mother of 13, aged 65, expecting quadruplets
Annegret Raunigk, a Berlin schoolteacher who is soon to retire, is expected to give birth to the four babies within the next two months, Bild newspaper and RTL television reported.
She already has children ranging in age from nine to 44, from five fathers.
Ms Raunigk said she decided to become pregnant again because her nine-year-old daughter wanted a younger sibling.
Her decision was met with widespread criticism by medical professionals as a risk both to her and the unborn babies.
“Any pregnancy of a woman over age 45 has to be considered a high-risk pregnancy; over 60 this is naturally extreme,” Dr Holger Stepan, head of obstetrics at the University of Leipzig, told the dpa news agency.
“The 65-year-old body is definitely not designed to carry a pregnancy, not of one child and certainly not of quadruplets,” he said.
Ms Raunigk told Bild that donated eggs were fertilised and implanted at a clinic outside Germany, which was successful only after multiple attempts.
She defended her decision: “How does one have to behave at 65?”
“They can see it how they want to,” she said, “and I’ll see it the way I think is right.”
She also told of learning she was going to have four babies.
“Certainly that was a shock for me.
“After the doctor discovered there were four, I had to give it some thought to begin with.
“On the scan it was just clear to see,” Bild quoted her as saying
“I’m not actually afraid. I simply assume I’ll remain healthy and fit. In matters of organisation I have enough experience, that’s not new for me,” she said.
Her gynaecologist, Kai Hertwig, said the pregnancy was currently going well.
Raunigk made international headlines in 2005 when she gave birth to her 13th child, Lelia, at the age of 55.
“At first, I only wanted one child,” Bild quoted her as saying at the time. “Not all were planned. But then things happen. I’m not a planner but rather spontaneous. And children keep me young.”
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