Britain's biggest family just got bigger: The Radfords welcome a new grandchild
Britain’s biggest family has seen the arrival of a 27th child after Millie Radford gave birth to a baby girl.
Millie Radford, 19, is the seventh eldest child of Sue and Noel Radford, who now have 22 children and four grandchildren.
The news that Millie had given birth to a baby girl, named Ophelia, was shared on Sunday when she shared a picture of her newborn’s tiny feet as she lay on a peach blanket.
“The biggest chapter of our lives has begun,” Millie wrote in the Instagram caption.
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A separate post on the Radford’s family Instagram account welcomed the new arrival into the brood with a black and white image of Sue Radford holding her new grandchild’s hand.
“Welcome to the family beautiful Ophelia,” the accompanying caption read. “I can’t even put into words how incredibly proud I am of @millieeradfordd you did AMAZING bringing this beautiful blessing into the world. We love you both so much.”
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A further post revealed that baby Ophelia Jo Radford was born at 7.05pm on 10 September weighing 7lb 12oz.
Grandmother Sue, 45, also shared a video to YouTube capturing the hours after Ophelia’s arrival, as she revealed Millie had a traumatic labour.
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Sue said: “Millie managed on gas and air. She came in at six cm, and you did brilliantly didn’t you?
“I can’t believe you came in at six centimetres, and she was born five hours later.”
Millie went on to explain that Ophelia was born with both her fists by the side of her face.
Sue noted it “was not a good position for her to come out”, while Millie added: “I think that’s why it took so long.”
Sue went on to reveal that Millie had to go to theatre after the birth because she had a second degree tear.
“So she was in theatre for a few hours and I had Ophelia, bless her,” the mother-of-22 explained.
The Radfords are Britain's biggest family, with Noel and Sue parents to 22 children.
Little Ophelia will have plenty of other children to play with, as Noel and Sue have three other grandchildren: daughter Sophie's children, Daisy, six, Ayprill, four, and Leo, two.
And earlier this year Sue Radford gave birth to her 22nd baby, Heidie Rose.
Heidie Rose was born on 3 April, weighing in at 7lbs (3.1kg).
She joins siblings Chris, 31, Sophie, 26, Chloe, 25, Jack, 23, Daniel, 21, Luke, 19, Millie, 19, Katie, 17, James, 16, Ellie, 15, Aimee, 14, Josh, 13, Max, 11, Tillie, 10, Oscar, eight, Casper, seven, Hallie, five, Phoebe, four, Archie two, and Bonnie Raye, one.
One of the couple’s children, named Alfie, was stillborn on 6 July 2014.
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Despite clearly enjoying her new grandchild, it is unlikely that Sue Radford will act on any potential broodiness having revealed earlier this year that she won’t be having any more children.
Back in May the family hosted a Q&A in which Instagram users posed questions for them to answer.
When asked if they were considering adding to their brood, Sue responded: “This is literally the most asked question ever.
“Every other question was ‘Will you be having another baby?’
“And the answer is no!
“So yes, definitely no more for us. We are 100% done.”