Do you ever wonder how moms with twins survived back in the day?

I keep wondering how all those women did it. I barely manage and I have a washer & dryer, dishwasher, a whole of lot easy food, etc. I can't imagine hand washing everything and cooking every meal from scratch. Do you think they let their babies cry more? Just one of those things I ponder from time to time.

 

I wonder that every single day... but I also think that women had a better support system. In those days I think it was pretty common to have extended family around and everyone chipped in. That being said, what a hard life! I can't even get a meal out of the freezer half the time.. nevermind pluck a chicken!

 

Good thread! Yes, I have wondered that myself! I've even thought just about how moms did it just 30 or 40 years ago- no double strollers, jumperoos, etc! I guess they will think that about us in another 40+ years! You don't miss what you don't know!

 

+1

Excellent thread!

 

Maybe Xanax has been around for 30-40 years..... years :girl_devil:

 

Y'all probably don't really want to know the answer. Before agricultural societies they would choose to raise only the fitter twin because a woman on a subsistence diet cannot nurse two babies.

And probably a lot of moms of twins died in childbirth, particularly if one was breech. If they came early, same thing.
FIL's mother had three sets of twins (they were born in the 1920s and 30s). None survived.

More modern times, yes older women, or the older daughters in a family would have helped a lot. Greater wealth would have made a big difference. Obviously, people did have and rear twins, but such high success rates were far less common. I am so grateful to be living now.

 

I also think of this from a medical point of view.

A friend of mine (90+ years) tells of the family her grandmother traveled with out West. One of their twins was born under 2 lbs. Yes, 1. something lbs, and they put her on a pillow and carried her on the carriage out West. And she SURVIVED her mother had to revive her plenty of times from being blue, but she survived and THRIVED.

While I was amazed at her blessing, it made me think of all those who wouldn't have.

Frankly, I'm lucky, with 4 girls, the only one who would have been at risk was baby B and me in my last pregnangy (twins). She would have likely been breech. We might have both died.
I Thank our God for modern medicine!

 

While I was pregnant with the boys a coworker told me her mom was a twin. Her mom is now deceased but was born approximately 75 years ago. Anyway, they were boy/girl twins and according to the family they were only approximately 2 lbs at birth and supposedly they just bundled the tiny babies up and extended family was always around and they just kind of passed the babies from one person to the next, and if they stopped breathing they would shake them. When she told me this story I thought it was amazing. When my own sons were born under 3 lbs and I watched them in the NICU having spells all of the time and needing stimulation and caffeine I thought she was nuts, LOL. I figured there was NO WAY tiny twin babies born 75 years ago weighing 2.x lbs would have had any chance to survive and thought maybe her family exaggerated how small they really were. I have no idea what the real truth is, and I guess it is possible, but unlikely.

Anyway, I have often times wondered how women did it back in the day. I figure they didn't coddle babies as much then but rather swaddled them up and let them CIO a good bit. Whereas I'm typically one of those moms who trips over herself to get to the nursery at the slightest grunt. No darn wonder I'm frazzled and tired all of the time

 

The medical aspect is another good point. I quite likely wouldn't have survived my delivery. To begin with, I had high blood pressure and was at the door of pre-eclampsia when I was induced. I had a pretty easy vaginal delivery, but after the babies were born my uterus didn't clamp off and without the arsenal of medication I received, I would have bled out. I still lost a liter of blood as it was.

 

Absolutely!!!

HAHAHAHA!!

:cry:

:cry:

I never thought of the medical side of things but the MIL (despite not having twins and having her kids 4 years apart) tells me how easy we have it compared to their day ugh! :grr: :catfight: :catfight:

 

I saw an Amish woman the other day who told me she had 22yr old twins. All I could think was "how in the world did you do it????" I can't imagine raising twins without the modern conveniences. I would guess that she had alot of family around to help out though. It made me realize how easy I have it!

 

I recently ran into some identical twins that I went to high school with and they were with their mom. They also had 2 older brothers that were toddlers when they were born. We had our boys with us when I saw them and I told her mom "I don't know how in the world you raised twins back in the day while also dealing with two toddlers!!" She laughed and said "Well it was easier back then." I have NO idea what she meant though. How could it have been easier?? I think she must have just purged all of those memories from her mind though in order to survive, LOL.

 

I think all of us wonder about this at some point! I also think that it only makes us wonder. In the old days people did not care that much about how they're going to make it. Life was so very different! Yes, kids probably cried much more at the beginning, but they soon learned that mom had to work or do other things so she wasn't going to come.
Many kids starved as the mother had no milk - unless they were rich and their maids had kids at the same time - and there wasn't any kind of formula.
Even later on, let's say in the seventies I'm sure mothers did not stress so much about the pshycological effect of their behaviour towards their kids.

Overall, I think life was much tougher for the kids, but just as stressful for the mothers. We are lucky that we have twins nowadays.

 

Great thread! My first thought was that most mothers with twins didn't survive and probably the children as well. An early set of twins born to my husband's great-grandmother did not survive, but luckily she did. I just think of all the women on TS whose children would not have made it had it not been for medical technology, mine included. Thank goodness I live in this century!

 

My DH's aunt had twins (boy/girl) about 50 years ago. She didn't know she was having twins until they delivered! :woah: I've only talked to her a little bit about it (she lives across the state and we only see her once a year), but she said she basically lived at her MIL's house through most of her pregnancy and early childhood. So she didn't have any modern conveniences, but she did have a great support system, which I think helps immensely.

 

I definitely appreciate the modern conveniences and don't know what I would have done with the swings, jumperoos, dishwasher, washing machine... However, I do think we make it harder on ourselves these days with all of the mom guilt, and worry about development, and feelings. Some of my biggest stresses come from things that even my mother's generation just kind of thinks are silly - like what foods to feed or not, what words they are saying or directions they can follow, or how long they should be allowed to cry, play independently, or have a temper tantrum, how many hours of sleep they are getting, if they are getting enough individual attention, etc., etc. - I don't think previous generations worried about things as much as we do (or at least I do)!

 

Honestly, the rate of survival for twins back then was a lot less. Yes, some survived, but not nearly as many as do now. In my grandmother's generation, there were 5 separate sets of twins. In 4 cases one or both babies were stillborn. In the 5th case they were early and small and only survived a couple of days.

 

My great uncles born in the 30s had to be put in the wood stove to keeps them. I too would not have survived the delivery as the girls were transverse

 

Has anyone read chicken soup for the Twins/multiples soul?? I bought it at the hospital gift shop on one of my many trips to L/D It has a lot of amazing stories of twins being born.....women not knowing they were carrying twins and how they survived it is a great book .... some of the stories are real tear jerkers so beware

Identical twin girls 6 months and 2 weeks

 

We used to live on a 3rd floor walkup without a washer/dryer & I took the bus. When I found out I was pregnant, I wanted to move & get a washer & dryer. We did & it's a good thing b/c I couldn't barely move from 7.5 months on. There is no way I would have been able to walk up 3 flights of stairs. Now, as my washer is humming to me, this day I am thankful. Most days I am thankful I don't have to hang out laundry on a line, I have a diaper service (every week when they are delivered, they are a SIGHT!) and a car.

 

My great-grandmother had twins (my grandfather and his ID brother) back in the 1920s. They were premature, and she had to keep them warm in the oven when she first brought them home. They were a really interesting site to their community. Apparently, they were a big deal and got all the attention rather than their siblings.

My great-grandmother lived to be 97, but she died a couple years before I had the twins, so I never got to talk to her about it.

 

My mom's best friend had twins almost 50 years ago (b/g)...she did not know that she was having twins until she delivered them. However, her mother told her that she thought she was having twins (I guess judging by her size?). She told me that she had a diapering service that would come and collect the cloth diapers and launder them for her and she said it was hard but she was fortunate to have a lot of help (she had two older children).
She said when the doctor told her that there was one more baby after the first one, she was totally stunned!

 

I have a friend at the fitness center who had twins 47 years ago. The twins were her 3rd and 4th children, and then she had a 5th 18 months later. :faint:

She had a servant. She told me she couldn't go anywhere with the children by herself. I didn't ask exactly what she meant but I'm assuming she meant she had a maid and a nanny.

She also did not know she was having twins until they did an x-ray when she was in her 7th month. They thought she was ready to deliver, so they did an x-ray and found out she was having twins and needed to hold off another month.