The Moirae

Imagine a birth in Ancient Greece in the 5th century BC. The Parthenon is complete and Athens is the most powerful political and cultural city-state in Europe. Democracy is becoming a solid practice and the power of the people is proving strong and effective. But in the aspect of birth, the people of Athens still leave it to the Gods. Moirae, or The Fate of the Three Sisters determines whether the baby will become a brilliant philosopher or a poor worker. Three days after a child is born, three goddesses enter the room to map out the little one's fate. Clotho spins life's thread; Lachesis measures it out; Atropos cuts the thread at life's end. Until the Moirae have decided a child is considered especially vulnerable. A lock of hair is given to the goddesses to insure a long and pleasant life. After the fate is determined, the baby is finally fully celebrated and a feast is had.

I think I love twins

Identical twins occur once every 400 births, non-identical twins (fraternal twins) occur once every 70 births, triplets once every 7,500 births, and quadruplets once every 620,000 births.

Nicky Owen from England gave birth to identical twin boys. Seven years later in 2003, she gave birth to fraternal twins. She herself is an identical twin.

The incredible odds of this happening are so very slim: 11,200,000 to one!

From an article in The Daily Mail that I found through my library database. It wont let me link it... But it's true, it really is.

size wise

The way things grow...

The average pregnancy will stretch the mother's skin an additional 1.5 feet by the 9th month!

At the end of a normal, full-term pregnancy, the uterine muscle is the largest muscle in the woman's body.

After the birth, the woman's womb will shrink back to half its pregnant size before the baby is one week old. By a month, it may be back to its normal size.

Human babies are born with only 25% of their adult brain size, compared with 45% attained by infant chimps. The human brain doubles in size during the first year of life.

Wowee.

part two: where do babies come from?

Here's the second installation on the topic.

Featuring: THE STORK!

The stork method of delivery is most definitely a popular myth in America. Dutch, German and Scandinavian mothers would tell this tale to their children as explanation for the presence of their new siblings. Since the women usually took a few days of bed rest following birth, they would also add that when the stork came it bit the pregnant mother in the leg, causing her to stay in bed. Storks are one of the strongest and most loving of all the birds. The English word stork comes from the Greek storge' meaning "strong and natural affection". These tenderhearts have been seen giving special care to the fragile members of their flock. The stork's migration sealed the deal. Before migratory patterns were recognized the mysterious absence was thought to be the period when the stork went to get the new babies.
I think I really believed this once. I remember driving in California and seeing so many seagulls. I must have thought they were storks because I just knew that they were going to delivery all the babies in the world, they were just hanging out by the beach having a vacation.

"We knew you had it in you."
-Dorothy Parker

smart babies drink breast milk

All issues of breastfeeding aside, the news is in!

BBC News has a new report out with the results of a study showing the effects breastfeeding has on IQ. There's a certain gene called FADS2 that breaks down fatty acids that prohibit brain development. This intelligence enhancing gene is present in the milk of 9 out of 10 breastfeeding women.

"The argument about intelligence has been about nature versus nurture for at least a century," said Professor Terrie Moffitt, a co-author on the paper. "However, we have shown that in fact nature works via nurture to create better health outcomes."

I think formula feeding most definitely has its place, sometimes being the only thing sustaining a new life. But it's also nice to know nature has proven itself once again as being superior to a deceptively marketed alternative.

world population clock!

At 8:31pm EST, the population of the world was estimated to be 6,628,876,289!

I've always wanted to know the estimated population at any given second.

NOW I KNOW!

I found this website that tells you exactly that.
It's incredible, and kind of scary, even if it's an only estimate.

When I finished this post at 8:42pm, the estimate was already at 6,628,877,872.
That's an increase of 1,583 people in only 11 minutes!!! Sheesh.

twilight sleep

Something especially horrible happened in the history of birth right around 1940. Male obstetricians were becoming more and more controlling of the process of birth and women wanted it their way; particularly those advocating women's rights. "Twilight Sleep" was brought to the market and almost instantly became the popular solution women were seeking. By becoming entirely sedated from a mixture of morphine and scopolamine, these new mothers felt they were taking control of their birth. It seems so backwards that being in the most passive position, sometimes even being strapped to the bed, felt like a gain of control. While the father was neglected and had no place in the delivery room for the process, the woman woke with a sleepy baby in her arms, both still doped up so that the baby could hardly breast feed, and recovery time was at least doubled. Sounds dreamy right?