Call the Midwife!

No, I am not announcing a miracle pregnancy!

I just watched Season 1 Episode 1 of Call the Midwife (TV show) and it was kind of interesting. I would like to see each individual story gone into in more depth, but for a season opener to introduce several characters it was pretty good.

The one that got me was the woman who had 25 babies! She started at age 14 and never quit--and only two sets of twins. One thing that was really funny was when the midwife asked the oldest girl at home when her mom last had a period, and the girl was too embarrassed to translate it. How can you grow up with a mom having a baby every year and be too embarrassed to talk about periods? Perhaps no one ever explained the connection?  Anyway, enough spoiler alerts.

I have an ancestor who gave birth to at least 20 children, including 3 sets of twins, (maybe a set of triplets, but two of the names are close so it might be the same person) so that's 17 or 18 pregnancies. 18! At least one of the children died as a baby, which I find so very sad, and the shortest time between births was a little less than 8 months, with the longest time being 2 years and 7 months. I cannot even imagine, I just can't even. Pregnant almost nonstop from age 17 to age 39.

But I guess I should be grateful since my Great Great Great Grandfather was #17. That is sure a lot of names to come up with. At least five of them had middle names. Maybe they did not make such a big deal of name choosing as we do. Oh well, a name?  It was a little cutesy that they named twins Elias and Eliza, but most of them are plain old names like Charles, Steven, James, Hannah, Hezekiah...wait, Hezekiah?  Nope, it was Keziah.

At any rate, I am grateful that I had modern medical care or I would possibly not have survived the first one; and if I had, I would probably have lost one or both of the last two. I love all my sons so much I can't even imagine life without them. And I am still glad I did not have 20 or 25 children!

Happy Mother's Day