Some may say that having a baby and a toddler is already a handful. What more if it's 11 children? Yet, the buck does not stop there for a 23-year-old mom-of-11 who wants 100 kids, at least. She is now looking into the option of surrogacy, which would cost nearly a million U.S. dollars.
Mom of 11 Wants 100 Children, Some through Surrogates
Russian mom Christina Ozturk, 23, can be seen pushing a pair of twin buggies where her four youngest babies are sleeping. But Ozturk loves family life with her businessman husband Galip Ozturk, 56, so much that their youngest child (a newborn who arrived last month) will not be the last for them.
Christina's motherhood journey started 6 years ago when she gave birth to her eldest daughter. "I gave birth to Vika, and the rest of our children are genetically ours, carried by surrogates." The couple revealed their plans of becoming parents to at least 100, or even 105 but admitted the numbers are random, The Sun reported.
The couple is not fixed on the number of family members they ultimately want to have. But, the young mom revealed that they do not plan to stop at 10 children. Apparently, the couple plans to have at least a dozen kids each year over the next 7 years. With this plan, the mom would be 5 kids shorter of her dream of having at least a hundred children.
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Single Mom Wants More Babies
The Moscow-born mom used to be a single mom-of-one. On holiday to a seaside town, she met her now-husband, a property and transport magnate from Turkey. If their plans go well, they could have the largest family in the world. Currently, in the U.K., the biggest family is the Radfords from Lancashire, who have 22 children.
After 10 children born via surrogacy, the couple has now gotten the process to a tee. In the coastal town of Batumi, Georgia, where the family lives, pregnancy via surrogate mothers is legal and costs almost $10,000 for every surrogacy.
The surrogates go through counseling and essential legal paperwork. But, the couple avoids direct contact with the surrogate mothers to prevent problems post-pregnancy. The clinic they transact with takes full responsibility, and the couple can ensure control over the surrogates' diet.
Can a Woman be Addicted to having Babies?
Surprisingly, Ozturk's situation is not uncommon. Californian mom Nadya Suleman, now 45, had octuplets when she already had 6 children.
Family therapist Gayle Peterson has also seen mothers who are already overwhelmed with 4-5 children, even those with special needs, and still want more. Despite struggling with panic attacks and depression, such women are driven to increase the number of children they have. "Sometimes, to make up for some loss or void from their unhappy childhood," the therapist explained.
Baby addiction can happen when mothers have babies with the notion that it will complete something in themselves that never got completed, NBC News reported. In the case of Suleman, who already reported a history of depression, she believes a huge family is what she needs because she had a dysfunctional childhood.
She was an only child. Suleman is single, unemployed, has two children with disabilities and one child with autism. Because of this, her case has been talked about as people are concerned over how she will manage the financial and emotional toll of having so many children.
"Therapy can help such women come to grips with the reality that having so many kids will only complicate their lives rather than heal them," Peterson said. In cases like these, the desire to keep having kids despite the overwhelm can only be because of compulsion.
