65-year-old Grandma expecting quadruplets defends pregnancy (Photos)

A 65-year-old German woman who is due to give birth to quadruplets in the summer has defended her decision and says she is looking forward to the challenges ahead.

Annegret Raunigk, who is in her fifth month of pregnancy, said she had decided to get pregnant after her nine-year-old daughter, Lelia, told her she would like a baby sister or brother. “She’s a great kid and I wanted to fulfil her wish,” Raunigk told the German television channel RTL.

She said she found it “quite a strain battling against the cliches” as to what she should and should not be capable of at her age, and if science had enabled her to get pregnant “it should be up to everyone to decide for themselves”.

Raunigk, who has 13 children and seven grandchildren, was open about the fact that her pregnancy was the result of artificial insemination carried out in a clinic in Ukraine using sperm and eggs from anonymous donors, a practice forbidden in Germany. All four of the fertilised eggs placed in Raunigk’s womb developed into embryos, contrary to her doctors’ expectations. The chance of quadruplets being conceived naturally is otherwise one in 13 million.

Raunigk, a Russian and English primary school teacher who is due to retire shortly before giving birth, did not reveal how many times she had gone through the IVF process or how much it had cost.

She made headlines nine years ago when she became Germany’s oldest mother at the age of 55 after giving birth to Lelia, who she said was conceived naturally. She then appeared on German television with her 13 children, the oldest of whom is now 43.