I understand about who has what placenta, but to clarify my question – Usually when there is a birth, the placenta is expelled. If one twin is born a month before the other, does that imply there are two placentas?
Yes. Otherwise the first twin born would yank it out with him and the remaining twin would have no oxygen or nutrition or waste removal.
I suppose I could conceive of a hypothetical wherein the infant was delivered but not the placenta, and the cord cut without the placenta detaching and therefore remaining to nourish the second twin, but that’s so unlikely in reality that it reeks of science fiction. I won’t say it’s never ever happened, but I’d have to see a well documented case study to believe it. I’d also wonder why the mother wouldn’t bleed out in such a case, although maybe if you cauterized her end of the cord…
I was searching to an answer to this very question a few years ago, which lead me to discover this site and the thread Elfkin linked to above. Apparently Cecil is the ONLY person on the www with the answer to everything.
I also ran across a suspicious set of siblings in my family tree. One was born Dec 6, 1870 and the twin was born Feb 14, 1871. How could this be possible? How could the twin born 10 weeks early survive back in those hard times? Of course, I wondered if it was a mistake in the records, a cousin they adopted, etc. But then I found the birth dates hand written in their own family bible.
Can you imagine what that poor woman thought after she had one child, then 2 months later, just when she is getting settled into her routine, ANOTHER pops out?
Remember not many people cared much about dates. Even in the 70s, my mother just made up things about her date (she immigrted from Yugoslavia). They weren’t all terribly official on you. So mistakes were made on dates a lot.
Even with the Social Security Death Index, my mother has the birth and death dates wrong. I have an uncle and another guy who I don’t know, and it seems they got the dates of death mixed up somehow, 'cause they have the same name. Now maybe my uncles was cheating. One lived in Iowa and one in California and the Iowa guy was living after the SS death index reported him dead.
I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, but when you look at old date, even a recently as the 70s, people weren’t all the careful with dates on documents
Something that apparently could sometimes happen in past times was hiding an undesirable pregnancy by “assigning” the child to a close relative, like the mother or (married) sister of an unwed girl.
I am pretty sure that pre-term babies of 30-32 weeks could and occasionally did survive. There is a huge difference between even 29 weeks and 31.
Yep, very occasionally. My step-uncle was one such. The midwife fried up a huge batch of sliced onions in a cast iron pan and covered them with a blanket to make a homemade incubator! :eek:
(No one ever told me if they ate the onions later.)
I have a great uncle that survived in a shoe box with a hot water bottle. Not sure exactly how far along my great grandmother was, but I know the baby was tiny-tiny-tiny. He was the golden child because of that, until he died in WWII.
Is there any particular reason why they used onions?
Slightly related hijack- When was the first time period that women would know* they were pregnant with more than one baby?
Or at least have a strong idea.
I’d guess the onions would be padding.
I know my Mom knew she was still pregnant within a few weeks, probably the lack of menstruation.
They hold their heat well, making a warming bed for the baby. Plus, it was what they had, being poor folks literally in a cabin in the woods in the middle of winter.
If you’re in the last 12 weeks or so of pregnancy, you should feel the fetus move at least once a day. Besides, any midwife or doctor would be able to tell there was still something inside, and feeling a baby’s rump through the mom’s abdomen is pretty easy if you’re used to it.
If she was nursing on demand, I wouldn’t expect a return of her cycles for a few months, at least, even after all the babies were born.
Certainly by the 1800’s there were fetal stethoscopes (scroll down nearly to the bottom of the page)in use. Hearing two heartbeats (besides the mother’s comparatively slow one) would be a good indication of twins. Late in pregnancy, feeling more than two butts or more than four limbs would be a clue as well. Believe it or not, a trained person really can feel what’s what without an ultrasound. Finally, most midwives and doctors have a pretty good idea of how big a woman’s uterus should be at most points in pregnancy. A much larger than expected baby bump would lead one to suspect multiples. I suspect that’s not very recent knowledge, but I can’t cite it.
I figured padding and warmth, but was wondering if there was an old wives tale type reasoning behind the choice as opposed to using boiled potatoes or something.
So your mom gave birth to a stillborn baby, and she was the one who first realized there was still another baby (or two) in there?
Thanks **lynxie **and WhyNot.
The onion thing is the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard.
I know, isn’t it? I didn’t hear about it until my own daughter was born a preemie (don’t worry, she had a real incubator!) and suddenly everyone had a story to share. I started calling him Uncle Liver after that. (Liver and onions, get it?) 
I know you’re looking for medical knowledge (I have none), and I hate to be a spoil-sport, but my WAG (based on a particular story from my own family) is that the date of the stillborn sister was adjusted to a year or 2 later to hide a socially unfavorable situation.
Yes. Mom was only 19 and my parents didn’t have the money for prenatal care (this was before our UHC) and it was probably a disinterested hospital doctor who didn’t check her out properly. Her mother died when she was 13 so she kinda had to learn things on her own. She never told me all the details, so I can only guess. Nobody was hiding anything here, because this was my younger sister.