Romanian woman, 44, gives birth to 18th child in Canada

The Telegraph

A 44-year-old woman has given birth to her 18th child in Canada.

Livia Ionce holds her newborn daughter, Abigail Photo: AP

 

By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles 4:13PM BST 29 Jul 2008

Livia Ionce gave birth to her tenth daughter, Abigail, in Abbotsford, British Columbia, where she and her husband, Alexandru, have lived since 1990 when they immigrated from Romania.

Mr Ionce, 51, said his younger daughter weighed 7lb 12oz and was delivered naturally. She joins 17 siblings whose ages range from 20 months to 23 years.

"We never planned how many children to have. We just let God guide our lives, you know, because we strongly believe life comes from God and that's the reason we did not stop the life," said Mr Ionce, who works in construction.

He did not know if the couple would add to their brood of eight boys and 10 girls, most of whom share a seven-bedroom home.

"We would have liked a boy to be even," he added. "We thank God all of them are healthy and happy."

Mr Ionce said Abigail's birth was not difficult and both mother and child were doing well.
None of the couple's children were multiple births and all were born naturally apart from their four-year-old son Filip, who was born by Caesarean-section.
The most prolific mother in history, according to the Guinness Book of Records, was a Russian woman, known only as "the wife of Feodor Vassilyev", who gave birth to 69 children in the 18th century from 27 pregnancies.
The book also cites Leontina Albina, from Chile, as the most prolific living mother. She reportedly gave birth to her 55th child in 1981.