German Woman, 65, to Mother 17 Children Following Quadruplets Pregnancy

A 65-year old German woman may just make the impossible happen, when she delivers not one and certainly not two, but four babies later this summer.

Annergret Raunigk's pregnancy is not unfamiliar to her. For, she delivered a healthy girl at 55 after conceiving naturally. When her now 10-year old daughter asked her for a sibling around her own age, she obliged. Should she succeed, Raunigk's brood would increase to 17. Twelve of Raugnik's children are aged 22 through 40 and some are married with children.

Experts are apprehensive about the success of Raugnik's efforts.

"Any pregnancy of a woman over age 45 has to be considered a high-risk pregnancy; over 60 this is naturally extreme. The 65-year-old body is definitely not designed to carry a pregnancy, not of one child and certainly not of quadruplets," said Dr. Holger Stepan, head of obstetrics at the University of Leipzig, told Associated Press.

Raugnik however is unfazed. She says she has done it before and is confident of doing succeeding again. She was quoted by German papers saying she does not feel the need to conform to any stereotypes for 65-year old women, and that it is for an individual to choose. Incidentally, her doctors say her pregnancy at 21-weeks is healthy.

If she succeeds, Raugnik would become the oldest woman to deliver more than one child, in this case quadruplets.