Friday, 20 Apr, 2007 Offbeat

Seven children were born in Algeria on April, 18 in Boumerdes region by 27-year old woman.

Six girls and one boy appeared by Cesarean operation in the hospital of capital city of Algeria. Sadly, the boy didn't survive and the rest six children needed medical supervision. Newborn children are in good condition. The leightest of the children weighs about 1.5 lb (700 g) and the biggest - about 3 lb (1400g), Al-Khbar newspaper reported.

It was the first pregnancy of 27 year old woman. The last three months before the children births she had to spend in the hospital. It became known that woman undergone fertility treatment for six months before and got pregnant on the fifth year of her marriage.

This is not a single event of multiple birth in the history. There have been several cases of septuplets(7 children), octuplets(8 children), and even nonuplets(9 children) recorded, however, in most of the situations multiple conceptions were result of fertility treatment. There were around 7 cases of nonuplets and none of the children survived.

The world record was set in Italy, July 22 1971, when woman was pregnant with quindecaplets( 15 children): 10 girls and 5 boys and again due to fertility drugs. Although, all fetuses had to be extracted from mother's womb for health concerns.

The highest number of children conceived naturally without fertility drugs were 12 fetuses but in this case Argentinian woman lost the pregnancy.

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