Teachers spend the majority of the day looking after and teaching 25 to 30 children. Nursery workers have how many babies in their charge per day?

Fine, but they get to go home at the end of the working day. Even in a childrens home, where it is possible that one might find the same numbers and ages there would likely be more staff and they would work only so many hours a day. This mother has to face up to 24/7 365 days a year with fourteen small children under her care.

Friends of mine had triplets following IVF when all three embryos implanted took. That was hard enough work, even with the help they received through the NHS and both grandmothers doing their bit.

The other problem with multiple births is that, often, the babies can be handicapped in some way as a result of not carrying to full term. That can add extra strain to the mix.

I believe that the other children in the family are still very young, one report said that the oldest was about seven years old. This means that the adults in this family, consisting of the mother and her parents, will be responsible for the caring of fourteen children, none of whom is really old enough to care for themselves in any major way. Then there's the financial aspect. Who is supporting this family? There is no husband here - is the family wealthy or will they need to rely on the local welfare services?

I believe that it is the case, these days, that guidelines suggest that only two embryos are implanted during IVF, because of the problems that have arisen from multiple births. Based on the experience garnered ever since Sarah Brown became the first successful IVF birth, I would think that this is a sensible suggestion.

It's probable that all these children will be loved by their family, but that does not, of itself, overcome the gargantuan problem of such a large family of very young children. It was totally irresponsible, IMHO, for any doctor or parent to even consider the risk of implanting so many embryos at one time.