Prepare yourself for a peculiar and bewildering story that has been circulating on social media platforms. It’s a tale of a young mother supposedly giving birth to an astounding 17 babies all at once. While the image accompanying this story might convince some, it’s essential to reveal the truth behind this astonishing claim.
Several Facebook posts, including one from a Sri Lankan user in 2019, have shared a composite image featuring a healthy-looking pregnant woman juxtaposed with a photograph of a man in a hospital uniform surrounded by babies. The text above the image declares, “Catherine Bridge has set the world record by giving birth to 17 babies. They are all various.”
Upon closer inspection, it becomes evident that the image of the pregnant woman in the misleading post has been digitally manipulated to make her appear more pregnant than she actually is. A side-by-side comparison of the original photo and the manipulated image reveals the extent of the alteration.
Moreover, a Google image search for the photograph of the man in the green hospital uniform found the same image posted on a doctor’s Facebook page in 2012.
The origin of this false story can be traced to a satirical website called the World Daily News Report, which published an article in February 2014 claiming that an American woman gave birth to 17 babies. The article described a fictional scenario in which Catherine Bridges and her husband sought fertility treatment to achieve this incredible feat.
The website includes a disclaimer stating that its articles are satirical and fictitious in nature, emphasizing that they are not based on actual events. This acknowledgment underscores the fictional nature of the 17-baby birth story.
In reality, the Guinness World Records confirms that the record for “the most children delivered from one birth and surviving” is held by the American Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to eight babies in January 2009.
This episode serves as a reminder to exercise caution and skepticism when encountering sensational stories online, as not everything that circulates on the internet is rooted in truth.
