65-year-old is now mother of 17 children after giving birth to quadruplets

May 24, 2015, 03:57 PM IST

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A 65-year-old woman is now the mother of 17 children after giving birth to quadruplets.

Annegret Raunigk has added three boys and a girl to her huge brood after they were born prematurely on Tuesday in Berlin, German media reports.

The four new arrivals were delivered by cesarean section after 26 weeks, and are named Neeta, Dries, Bence and Fjonn according to RTL.

Her decision to conceive again was controversial, even within her own family.

Earlier this year her tenth child spoke out against her decision to have even more children.

Her son Velten Raunigk, 27, previously said: 'I don't think it is a good thing for mum to be having even more babies.'

The chemical industry executive spoke out a day after his mother appeared on television to speak about her decision to have the children after spending Â£15,000 on IVF treatment in Kiev, Ukraine.

Velten was the first of the clan to speak out against his mother.

He said that his youngest sister Leila, who turned ten earlier this year, is already bullied at school because of her 'grandma mum' and he and his siblings fear they will be left to bring up the quads if anything happens to his aging mother.

He said the family learned about her pregnancy after a family gathering earlier this year.

'I remember mum drank no wine and she seemed to be wearing extra-wide clothes,' he said. 'I had a feeling even before she told us.'

He said his youngest sister Auda, 22, broke the news to him.

He added: 'I learned she had gone abroad and was artificially inseminated and was expecting quadruplets.'

'My youngest sister Leila is ten,' he continued. 'I know she is bullied at school because her mum looks like her grandmum.

'How will that work with quadruplets?'

His father Ulrich died at 63 in 2008. He had nine children with Annegret, two others were born earlier and fathered by other men.

He went on: 'Shortly before the reunification of Germany my parents separated.

'He took the eldest five with him but he didn't stop caring for us others.'

Two other men sired the two other children which make up Annegret's enormous tribe.

But although Velten criticises his mother's decision, he said she has always played her motherhood role well, adding: 'Whenever we had problems she was always their for us.

'After the break with my father she flew us all off to Mallorca for a beach holdiday.

'The two weeks I spent there was the best experience of my childhood years.

'Despite disagreeing with her, if she needs help and support in the future, we will be there for her. Our family sticks together.'

Now the quads are born the German state will pay Annegret 988 euros a month, amounting to Â£712, for Leila and the others until they are 18.