Alexandra Hildebrandt, who lived in Kyiv during the Chernobyl disaster, has called the birth of her 10th child at 66 in Berlin a “miracle” and “a gift”, though experts question her claim
A Chernobyl disaster survivor has opened up about the birth of her 10th child at the age of 66 as “a miracle” and “a gift”. Alexandra Hildebrandt was living and working in Kyiv, Ukraine, when the nuclear plant exploded in 1986.
At the time of the disaster Hildebrandt was working in the Soviet arms industry, at a factory linked to missile guidance systems.
Although she wasn’t physically harmed, the disaster was a major turning point for her. After the accident, she quit her job in the Soviet arms industry to become an artist, eventually moving to Berlin to lead the Checkpoint Charlie Museum.
But recently, Hildebrandt stunned people around the world after giving birth to her 10th child at the age of 66, insisting the late pregnancy was “a miracle, a gift”, and not a publicity stunt. She told reporters: “I didn’t plan this as a statement.
“It was a miracle, a gift. Age should never limit a woman’s ability to love or to nurture.”
Hildebrandt gave birth to a baby boy, Philipp, last year at the Virchow Clinic of Charité University Hospital in Berlin, with reports saying the delivery was by caesarean section. The baby was reported to be healthy and weighed 7lb 13oz (around 3.5kg).
Her doctor, Dr Wolfgang Henrich, has been quoted describing her as the oldest pregnant patient he had treated, saying her “particularly good physical constitution and mental strength” helped her cope with the pregnancy, DPA reported.
Hildebrandt’s 10 children span across 46 years, with her first two born in what was then the Soviet Union and the remaining eight born later in Germany. Her first two children were with her first husband.
Her eldest child, a son, was born around 1979 in Kyiv, when she was about 20. Her second child, a daughter, was born around 1981, also in Kyiv, when she was around 22.
After moving to Berlin and following the death of her second husband, Rainer Hildebrandt (with whom she had no children), she later married Daniel Dormann. She has said the next eight children were conceived naturally, and they were all born in Berlin.
Doctors have expressed astonishment at Hildebrandt giving birth to her 10th child at 66, with the case described as an “absolute rarity” in medical history. While her own medical team has said the pregnancy and delivery were successful, some fertility specialists outside her treatment have voiced strong doubts about her claim that the conception was natural.
Doctors specialising in fertility medicine have questioned whether a natural conception at 66 is plausible without IVF or donor eggs. Experts including Dr Shahin Ghadir and Dr Brian Levine have described it as “biologically highly unlikely”, noting that most women are well past menopause by their mid-60s and therefore no longer produce eggs.
Some clinicians have suggested there could be exceptional explanations in rare cases, such as conditions including Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) which may delay menopause, although they stress this would still be an outlier.
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.