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Before all the modern fertilization stuff, a hundred years ago...400 years ago?
For example, did quadruplets even exist? Triplets, etc? Or in the event that a woman came to carry twins or whatever was the mortality rate pretty much a death sentence for all?
The Bible records many instances of twins, and twins appear in the mythology and artwork of many ancient cultures. No, of course having twins was not a death sentence. Most twins can be safely delivered vaginally even though nowadays it is more common to have a c-section.
Of course triplets and beyond would have been quite rare. For example, the chance of a women conceiving triplets without medical assistance is one in 8000, and quadruplets, only one in over 700,000. It must have happened sometimes, but I would assume that the outcome was usually not good as these births tend to be quite premature.
I found an article from February 1, 1917, in the "Daily Leader", published in Grand Rapids, Wisconsin that states:
" In England and The United States there are 10 pairs of twins among each 900 average babies born."
It then goes onto state "studies" that indicate that colder climates have a higher incidence of multiples than warmer:
" For a given proportion of the population ... nearly twice as many twins are born in Russia as in Spain ..."
Also: " In this country triplets occur once in each 7,910 birts and quadruplets once in each 371,175."
Where exactly these statistics come from is not revealed but I included an image of that page:
I'll keep looking for other sources; I'm kind of an "archives nerd" because I like to read accounts from the time period itself, complete with the grammatical context of the era.
In 1993 I was told I was a "reportable occurence" due to a pregnancy of fraternal triplets. The triplet "natural conception" (without the use of fertility drugs) was not discovered until I had a late 1st trimester miscarriage, which was attended by an ER physician.
Following the complete contents delivery, the doctor decided something didn't seem "right" & sent me for an ultrasound which discovered two more viable heartbeats.
I was dazed by the events but remember him waving his arms around saying "This is a reportable occurence, folks!"
Several months later I delivered fraternal boy/girl twins. In 2001, I delivered fraternal girl/girl twins, so I'm a multiple multiples mom.
No previous nor current history of twins in the family, despite my maternal grandmother having had 4, paternal grandmother having 6, paternal aunt having 7 & a paternal cousin having 12 (I have 11 total).
Aha; I found a hint towards the "not so natural selection" possibility regarding the incidence of multiple births. This article was titled "A Dislike of Twins"; published on December 24, 1870, in the "Sandusky (Ohio) Daily Register."
It states accounts from several different locations & cultures throughout the world who had superstitions ... or possibly concerns based on resources ... involving multiple births.
" ... In the Island of Bali, near Java, the natives have the singular idea, when a woman is brought to bed of twins, that it is an unlucky omen and immediately the woman, with her husband and children, is obliged to go and live at the seashore, or among the tombs, for the space of a month, to purify themselves, after which they may return into the village upon a suitable sacrifice being made."
The article states that in some areas, twins were either both killed or the twins AND the mother were killed due to multiple birth being seen as "degrading" ... " ... as they considered that it assimilates them with the lower animals."
The Native Americans were rumored to kill just one of the twins ..." ... under the idea that one strong child was better than two weak ones."
I suppose, depending on the scope & duration of this practice, reported on 146 years ago; this might have had an impact on our current incidence of multiple births.
More accurately; it could have affected the incidence of fraternal multiple births. Identicals involve the random "doubling" of DNA from a single conception but fraternals require a woman to be 'hyperfertile" with two or more individual conceptions.
As the current belief is that the state of hyperfertility may be hereditary, killing the woman & offspring would have mitigated that trait.
Here is the article (I've tried providing links to the site in the past but it's password access & won't allow viewing):
Many years ago, I was looking through old family papers, and I found a bunch of newspaper clippings about the Dionne Quints, that my 2G grandma had cut out and saved in an album.
In most all cases pregnancies with multiple fetuses results in premature births; a woman's body can only hold "X" number of unborn to full term. Thus the problem may not have always been the live births of multiples, but keeping them alive with the rudimentary healthcare and knowledge.
Until early part of last century nearly one third of infant deaths was due to being born premature. An enterprising German born physician whose own daughter was born premature (and lived well into adulthood thanks to her father's care) set out to change this; he invented the incubator and standard of care for premature infants.
To the balance of OP's post, yes the explosion of fertility treatments *and* surrogacy has caused a massive increase in multiple births. If you look at gay men and or couples with children (Ricky Martin and Neil Patrick Harris are two famous examples) they usually have twins/multiple birth children. This is a byproduct often of the surrogacy process.
Late as the 1960's and even 1970's a woman having twins, triplets or more infants was a rare enough occurrence to warrant media (at least local) attention. There were groups like the "Mothers of Twins" club. In school twins were a rarity and if identical were something of an attraction (the nuns always separated them to keep track of which was which).
Fast forward to today and at least here in NYC it is wall to wall twins, triplets, etc...
Before all the modern fertilization stuff, a hundred years ago...400 years ago?
For example, did quadruplets even exist? Triplets, etc? Or in the event that a woman came to carry twins or whatever was the mortality rate pretty much a death sentence for all?
Cleopatra is recorded as having had twins with Mark Antony so while maybe more rare, it did occur in antiquity.
Yes, and it's even more remarkable that the Dionne quintuplets were delivered in a wooden farmhouse in a very remote area, with only kerosene lights. The parents already had five previous children, and no car, only a bicycle.
I found an article from February 1, 1917, in the "Daily Leader", published in Grand Rapids, Wisconsin that states:
" In England and The United States there are 10 pairs of twins among each 900 average babies born."
It then goes onto state "studies" that indicate that colder climates have a higher incidence of multiples than warmer:
" For a given proportion of the population ... nearly twice as many twins are born in Russia as in Spain ..."
Also: " In this country triplets occur once in each 7,910 birts and quadruplets once in each 371,175."
Where exactly these statistics come from is not revealed but I included an image of that page: Attachment 179003
I'll keep looking for other sources; I'm kind of an "archives nerd" because I like to read accounts from the time period itself, complete with the grammatical context of the era.
Very interesting regards to the historical information you shared about northern climates and twins.
However, I think that those numbers should be viewed from an American and European perspective only being that the highest incidents of twins have always been in Africa. Benin, a country in West Africa has the highest twin birthrate in the world with nearly 28 twin deliveries out of 1000 births.
Previous information did not include statistics or factors of developing countries due to those areas not keeping reliable birth registers. Now that they do, the warmer clients of Africa, S. America, and Asia are some of the areas with the highest twin birthrates in the world and it stands to reason that they always have been but were not included in previous statistics.
Will also note that all states were not required to keep birth register/certificate records either until the 1910s when the federal government passed a requirement to do so. Even then, they did not accurately record the births of minority groups or poor/rural whites either in certain regions, especially the southeast.
I worked in housing when I lived in GA with senior residents and when the laws passed about IDs and driver's licenses a few years back and more information was needed to get identification, a lot of our seniors who were born in the 1920s and 1930s had issues obtaining a certified birth certificate/record because they had never been issued one!
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