Spanish man who fathered 18 children dies after cancer battle

Rosa Pich-Aguilera published a book in 2014 called Ser feliz con 1,2,3… hijos (Be happy with 1,2,3…children) describing her daily routine and life with her large family to Spanish news agency EFE, saying: “One mustn’t be afraid of life” and admitting that after her first three children died from congenital heart disease, she and her husband were advised by doctors not to have any more offspring.

But explaining that she and her husband, who worked as a pro-life family counselor, had “married to have children” the couple then went on to have 15 more: eight boys and seven girls, the youngest of whom is aged seven, and the eldest 25.

The birth rate in Spain continues to fall

Rosa Pich published a recent photograph of her husband in the final phase of his illness on her Instagram account on Monday, writing: “An hour ago, Chema went to heaven forever, forever, forever.”

The Postigo-Pich family bucks the downward trend of Spain’s birth rate in recent years: in 2015, more deaths were registered than births.

Births have fallen by 19.4% since 2008, when the biggest drop for three decades was registered. The current figure of 419,109 babies, for 2015, is the lowest since 2002 and 2% lower than the previous year.

Meanwhile, in 2015, deaths rose to 422,276, 6.7% more than in 2014, meaning that for the first time since 1941 there have been more deaths than births – and the period may even be longer since the statistics prior to this date are not exact.

English version by Nick Lyne.