Hatches, Matches and Despatches

MAGDALENA Deskur and Maxine Arthur both work for Sports Illustrated Magazine. Although they are competitive, sporty women, who like to win, they had no idea they would be racing against each other – to give birth. They met in their obstetrician’s office, where Maxine was found to be in labour, but nothing much seemed to be happening for Magdalena, who had thought she was in labour too. However, by the time Maxine had arrived at the admissions desk of the Beth Israel Hospital in New York, Magdalena’s labour had started, and she was ready for admission at the same hospital. They went to their rooms in the same hallway, and their obstetrician began his own race – between the rooms of the two colleagues. At 6.19 p.m. Maxine gave birth to her seven-pound two-ounce son. Thirty-five minutes later, Magdalena produced a seven-pound-four-ounce girl. Both babies measured twenty inches. Exhausted Dr Swersky declared a photo finish.

IF Mary Ellen Allen had taken the time to have regular antenatal checks, the chances are that her daughter, Shadonna Allen, would never have been born. When Mary visited Dr James Lee, he discovered that her baby was growing outside Mrs Allen’s Fallopian tubes, and had embedded itself in her abdominal cavity. As the unusual pregnancy was well advanced, however, he decided it was best to wait and see if the baby could survive. The chance was one in 200,000, but Shadonna was delivered eight weeks prematurely, weighing in at a tiny one pound and nine ounces.

THE heaviest single birth on record was a boy weighing twenty-two pounds and eight ounces who was born to Signora Carmelina Fedele of Aversa, Italy in 1955.

Famous Babies

WHEN Pablo Picasso was born, the midwife thought he was stillborn, and left the baby lying on a table. His uncle, who was a doctor, saw the lifeless baby and decided to see if there was anything he could do. He tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and young Pablo took his first breath.

LEONARDO da Vinci, Richard Wagner and Napoleon Bonaparte were all illegitimate.

TWENTY-ONE of the first twenty-three US astronauts who flew in space missions were either only children or firstborn sons, but no president of the US has been an only child.

WINSTON Churchill was born in a ladies’ cloakroom. His mother had been attending a dance at Blenheim Palace when she went into premature labour.

MARK Twain was born in 1835, when Hailey’s Comet appeared. And he died in 1910 – when it made its next appearance. Even more remarkable was his prediction years earlier: ‘I was born when Hailey’s Comet came in, I will die when it comes back. It is fitting that these two freaks of nature should come in together, and go out together.’

Youngest …

MUM-ZI, a member of the harem of Chief Akkiri, ruler of the estuary of Calabar, Nigeria, became a mother at the age of eight years and four months. Her daughter followed in her precocious footsteps, and herself became a mother at the age of eight, making Mum-zi the youngest grandmother on record at the age of seventeen.

… And Oldest

A SIXTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD Italian woman, Rosanna Della Corte, gave birth on 18 July 1995 to a boy, Riccardo, in a Rome hospital. She had been impregnated by a donated egg that had been fertilized with sperm from her sixty-four-year-old husband.

Curiosities

MEDICAL science is giving new meaning to the phrase, ‘putting something away for your child’s future’. An increasing number of parents are putting away the blood from their baby’s umbilical cord. The blood is being touted as an insurance policy families should have on hand in case their child contracts a life-threatening illness. The blood is collected from the placenta after the umbilical cord has been cut. It is tested for infection, then cryogenically frozen and stored in liquid nitrogen. The blood can be thawed and used to treat leukaemia, malignant tumours, immune diseases, anaemia, lymphoma, breast cancer and genetic disorders.

THE Maternity Centre Association in New York organizes preparation classes for children who will be attending the birth of their siblings. They are taught about conception, birth, and how to change nappies.

ON an average day in the USA: 10,501 babies are born, and 5,937 people die. 178 babies are conceived by artificial insemination, of which ninety-six are conceived with sperm from a known donor, and forty are conceived with sperm from a sperm bank. 389 children are adopted, 1,994 babies are born to single mothers, 2,531 babies are born by Caesarean section. 217 sets of twins are born, five sets of triplets are born, ninety-eight babies are born away from a hospital, and 280 babies are delivered by midwives. 1,109,589 condoms are sold, of which 443,836 are purchased by women.

MATCHES (#ulink_7d58de36-e26a-54c5-8029-512c965b9a5d)

Courting Customs

DURING the reign of Queen Anne, St Valentine’s Day was celebrated with an unusual game. Men put numbers in a bowl, and the women did the same. The numbers were then drawn and the men and women with the same numbers spent the day together, regardless of their marital status.

UNTIL the last century, ‘bundling’ was a normal part of courting among the Dutch and German immigrants in America. When a young man went courting, especially in the winter, the girl’s parents would let him stay overnight in the same bed as their daughter, provided they both kept their clothes on, or bundled up in the bedcovers. There was a practical reason for this – the family did not have to burn precious wood in the evening, and the boy did not have to walk miles home on a cold night. Bundling boards were often used, which separated the couple while they were in bed. This custom still survives among the Amish in Pennsylvania.

WHEN a gentleman met a lady in public in eighteenth-century France, he was expected to kiss her on the neck.

I Thee Wed

MARRIAGE began in prehistoric times. When a man saw a woman he desired who was from another tribe, he would take her by force. These ‘capture marriages’ were legal in England until the thirteenth century. By that time, when the groom was going to abduct his chosen bride, he would take along his strongest friend or best warrior, in case of trouble with uncooperative relatives. This friend became known as ‘the best man’.

Later, marriage became more of a trade between the groom and the father. The word ‘wedd’ meant the groom’s pledge to marry in exchange for horses, land, cash, etc. The wedding was the actual exchange of goods. Sometimes the father of the bride would not let the groom see his intended for fear of the deal being cancelled if he disliked the look of her. So when the father gave his daughter away, the groom would lift the veil to see her face for the first time.