MadSci Network: Medicine
Query:

Re: Why would it be impossible for a woman to have 481 babies?

Date: Wed Apr 25 15:51:39 2001
Posted By: Ann Gronowski, Faculty, Pathology, Washington University
Area of science: Medicine
ID: 987642566.Me
Message:

Sam:

A normal pregnancy takes 9 months and women are generally able to give 
birth from the age of 14 to 40. Although it is possible to get pregnant 
fairly soon after giving birth, in general it will not happen for several 
months. Lets say for the sake of argument that a woman got pregnant 3 
months after giving birth for every year of her fertile life. This would 
mean she could have one baby per year for 26 years. This is highly 
unlikely, as women spontaneously lose babies at a rate of almost 1 in 5. 
Lets just get even more absurd and say what if she had triplets every time 
she gave birth. This would mean she could have 78 babies in her lifetime. 
This does not even get close to 481 babies!!! 

In order to have 481 babies she would have to have 19 babies each year of 
her fertile life. Even if she had babies until she was 50 this would mean 
13 babies per year. The most living babies in a single birth has been 8. 
Therefore, it is impossible to have 481 babies.

I tried to find the record for the most babies a single person has given 
birth to and I have not found it. However it is certainly possible to have 
over 20 babies. Wow!!  That's a lot of shoes to buy. 



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