Week 28 - Multiple
All family historians are familiar with the perils of
childbirth in the 19th century.
We all have ancestors who died too young, and families where many
children did not live past infancy. Multiple births were particularly fraught –
for twins (and their mother) to survive birth was a rare achievement.
Twins are more likely to be born prematurely and to have
birth complications which further imperilled the mother if she was living at a
distance from medical care, as so many of our forebears did.
When my great grandmother Charlotte gave birth to twin boys
in 1878, she was 36 and already mother to seven children. The babies were born on the family property
“Lowestoft”, several miles from the nearest town. I understand from family stories that her
daughter Jenny, who would have been only 10 at the time, was at the birth, and there may only have been one other woman to assist her.
The boys were born alive and named Richard and Joseph, but
Richard died only three weeks later.
Joseph lived to celebrate his second birthday but died shortly
afterwards. According to family legend,
they are buried in the orchard at Lowestoft.
Charlotte recovered and went on to have four more children,
the last one when she was 43.
Charlotte’s sister Phoebe also had twin boys who died. Phoebe was the second wife to Stephenson
Moore, who was more than 20 years her senior.
He and his first wife had married in Ireland and already had three
children when they arrived in New South Wales as assisted immigrants in 1841.
There were four more births between 1843 – 1851, but the last baby died, and so
did the mother.
When Phoebe married Stephenson she was only 20, and she
became an instant stepmother to six, the oldest two of whom were just a few
years younger than she was.
She and Stephenson went on to have 13 children, but four of
them died in infancy. When the twins
were born in 1871, Phoebe was still recovering from the birth and death of a
baby boy the previous year. Born on 8
September 1871, David lived for two weeks, dying on September 22. His brother
Robert died the following day.
These are tragic stories, but in my search for multiple
births in the family tree, this one, from my husband’s tree, is both tragic and
shocking.
Ruby Vera Lee was another of the many grandchildren of
convict Agnes McMillan of whom I have written before. Born in Lismore in 1905, she was married at
17 to Henry Gill of Byron Bay. By the
age of 29, Ruby had 8 children and was pregnant again.
This birth made the National newspapers. On 15 September 1935, Ruby gave birth to
conjoined twins, also known as Siamese twins.
The babies, both girls, died.
Ruby died the following day.
In 1935, Lismore was a town of about 10,000. It’s doubtful that any hospital in Australia
could have coped with such a birth in 1935, but in a small country town it must
have been a cause of panic. There were
no ultrasounds to predict such an occurrence, and I doubt if there was even a
specialist obstetrician. Ruby was young
and had already delivered 8 children, so the birth was probably predicted to be
routine.
Twins are much more common now than at any time in
history. One reason is that women are
having their families when they are older, and older women are more likely to
have twins. Another is that Assisted
Reproduction Technology has increased the likelihood of multiple births. Technology has also given us the ultrasound
for early detection of in utero problems. Even conjoined twins now have a chance
at a normal life – in recent years there have been several successful attempts
at separating twins.
For hundreds of years, pregnancy and birth were both painful
and dangerous. Before reliable
contraception, a woman who married in her early twenties could expect to give
birth every two or three years until her mid-forties. Every birth carried the risk of complications
and possible death from excessive bleeding, prolonged labour or infection. And even if the mother survived, the baby may
not. For a multiple birth, the odds were
worse.
I look at the women in my past with admiration for their
strength and fortitude in triumphing over these difficulties.
 |
| Brisbane Courier Mail 16 September 1935 |
Ruby's story is especially sad. There were many twin births in previous generations of my family as well, and many of those children died although, thankfully, when my father was born in 1923 he and his twin brother survived the birth and lived long lives.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bernadette. We are lucky to be living in less perilous times.
DeleteThanks, Bernadette. We are lucky to be living in less perilous times.
Delete