Join us to discover the fascinating story of a young mother who is rumored to have given birth to 17 children simultaneously. Several Facebook posts have been circulating a composite image featuring two unrelated photos of pregnant women. It’s crucial to note that this claim is entirely false and originated from a satirical website. One of the images has been manipulated, and the other is being used out of context.
The world record for the most children delivered from a single pregnancy and survived is held by the American “octuplet mother” Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to eight children. Deceptive posts, like the one shared by a Facebook user in Sri Lanka on June 12, 2019, with over 600 shares, showcase a manipulated image that combines a picture of a healthy pregnant woman with a photograph of a man in a hospital uniform surrounded by babies.
The accompanying text above the image claims: “Catherine Bridge has set the world record by giving birth to 17 babies. They are all Karopes.”
The Sinhala text in the post translates to English as: “May the Three Jewels pray for the mother who gave birth to 17 Karopes and set a world record. Wouldn’t it be great if Sinhalese had babies like this?”
Similar claims have been circulating online since at least 2016, with instances on Twitter and Instagram. It’s essential to exercise caution and verify information before accepting such sensational claims as true.
The provided statement is factually incorrect.
Conducting an image search on Yandex for the picture of the pregnant woman in the post revealed that the image was originally posted on a social network for artists in August 2015. It’s essential to note that the image in the misleading post has been digitally manipulated to make the woman appear more pregnant. Here is a side-by-side comparison of the original photo (left) and the image in the misleading post (right):
Further investigation through an internal Google image search of the photograph of the man in the green hospital uniform led to the same photograph posted on the Facebook page of a doctor named Robert Biter on August 3, 2012.
A keyword Google search of the text in the misleading posts led to the discovery of an article published on the satirical website World Daily News Report in February 2014. The headline of this article reads: “USA: Mother Gives Birth to 17 babies at once.”
In summary, the statement made in the post is untrue, and the images used have been manipulated and misused to create a misleading narrative.
The introductory paragraph of the satirical article states the following: “An American woman has completely shattered the old world record for the most babies in a single pregnancy by giving birth to 17 babies in 29 hours last weekend at Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis.”
“Catherine Bridges and her husband had been trying to conceive for many years and decided last year to seek medical assistance from a fertility clinic in Rhode Island.”
The website featured a disclaimer page, indicating that its articles are of a satirical and fictional nature.
It’s worth noting that this is not the first instance of hoaxes spreading concerning record-breaking numbers of births on the internet. AFP has also reported on a similar claim.
According to the Guinness World Records website, the current record holder for “the most children delivered from one pregnancy and survived” is the American Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to eight babies in January 2009.