Valentina Vᴀssilyeva holds the Guinness World Record for the woman who gave birth to the most children. Born in the late 17th century, her life has been the subject of many historical accounts due to her extraordinary fertility record.

Valentina was the first wife of Feodor Vᴀssilyev (1707-1782), who lived in Shuya District, Ivanovo Province, Russia. According to some records, Valentina lived to be 75 years old and during her life, she gave birth to a total of 69 children after 27 pregnancies, including 16 twins, 7 triplets and 4 quadruplets. Of those 69 children, 2 died in infancy, while the other 67 survived to adulthood.

It is a pity that the names of the children of the Vᴀssilyev family were not preserved, mainly due to the family’s inaccurate and problematic records.

Other records state that Mrs. Vᴀssilyev’s astonishing number of births was first published by the Monastry of Nikolsk on February 27, 1782, and once in the Gentleman’s Magazine in 1783.

It is important to note that information about Valentina Vᴀssilyeva’s life comes from historical records, and as with many events from centuries ago, there may be some discrepancies and uncertainties between different sources. The accuracy of historical documents can be difficult to verify, especially in cases where written records were not meticulously maintained. However, Vᴀssilyeva’s story continues to be a subject of interest and discussion in historical and medical circles.

Until now, the story of Mrs. Valentina is still facing a lot of controversy from the scientific community and public opinion. Because, according to scientists’ calculations, the more children a pregnant woman has in her womb, the sooner her labor will come.

So, 16 sets of twins were each gestated for 37 weeks, 7 sets of triplets were each gestated for 32 weeks, 4 sets of quadruplets were each gestated for 30 weeks. In total, Valentina was pregnant for 936 weeks. There are 52 weeks in a year, and Valentina spent 18 weeks pregnant. In total, Valentina spent 18 years of her life pregnant.

This may sound absurd, but let’s do the math. You know that the average pregnancy lasts about 40 weeks. However, if you have more than one baby, labor is likely to start earlier.

According to BBC calculations, Valentina could have been pregnant with twins for 37 weeks, triplets for 32 weeks and quadruplets for 30 weeks. If you add all these numbers together, it would be a total of 936 weeks. There are 52 weeks in a year, so when divided, we get 18 years. This number is completely reasonable for the 40 years that Valentina lived with her ex-husband.

Many scientists still do not believe this story exists, but historical facts disappoint them.

Despite these doubts, there is still a lot of data to prove that Mrs. Valentina’s story is true. A list sent by the Nikolskiy monastery to Moscow in February 1782 proved that Feodor Vᴀssilyev – Valentina’s husband – had 82 children confirmed to be alive after two marriages. His second wife also had 18 children: including 6 pairs of twins, 3 sets of triplets. This list was published in 1834 in the Saint-Petersburg Panorama.

In 1783, Gentleman’s magazine also published an article about Vᴀssilyeva’s case. In it, the author suggested that the cause could be due to both husband and wife, or the wife, but perhaps in this case it was more due to the husband, because the twins and triplets were repeated in the case of the second wife.

In 1788, Russian historian Ivan Nikitch Boltin and again in 1834, in the book of writer Alexander Pavlovich Bashutskiy, also recorded the above case.

A report in The Lancet in 1878 stated that the French Academy of Sciences attempted to verify the claims about Valentina’s children, concluding that members of the family were still living in Moscow and that they were the subject of government priority.

The study of historical birth records presents a number of challenges, due to the lack of comprehensive documentation and the pᴀssage of time. The accuracy and reliability of historical documents are subject to interpretation and scrutiny, and it is essential that researchers and historians approach such records with caution and critical analysis.

When we explore the lives of extraordinary women like Valentina Vᴀssilyeva, Leontina Albina Espinoza, and Leontina de Castro Feitosa, we must appreciate their stories not just as record-breaking statistics, but as snapsH๏τs of a time and place far removed from our own modern context. These women overcame the challenges of childbirth and motherhood in eras with vastly different medical knowledge, resources, and cultural norms.

In short, historical accounts of women with exceptionally high numbers of children, including Valentina Vᴀssilyeva, continue to capture our imaginations. While the veracity of specific records may remain uncertain, their stories are testaments to the resilience of women and the complexity of human childbirth throughout history. As we explore these remarkable cases, we recognize the enduring mysteries of historical birth records and the importance of understanding the past in its unique historical context.