The Pregnant Woman Means Less Than The Fetus

WANT TO GO ON A WILD RIDE ABOUT PREGNANCY? Well, keep on reading.

When you think about a PREGNANT woman, what are your thoughts? Do you envision a woman glowing with her hands encircling her extended rounded belly? Do you think and wonder if the little bundle of joy is a girl or a boy? Most people when they see a pregnant woman have sweet positive thoughts about baby and mommy. But there is another side of pregnancy that is never discussed.

In America, there is an ongoing discussion about ABORTION. The FETUS is center stage. The fetus's rights trumps the mother's rights. Her life is put into suspended animation, and she becomes a HOST or VESSEL for a new life. Saying a woman is a host or vessel sounds cruel and harsh. But when someone else is calling HER healthcare choices while she is pregnant, those people make her into forced vessel or host. After she gives birth, then she is SEEN once again. Negative consequences experienced DURING pregnancy comes AFTER the needs and wellbeing of the growing child.

I write about the debate regarding abortion. I look at it from many angles. Today I thought about the LIFE of a PREGNANT woman. I knew I had heard this is a time in a woman's life where she is vulnerable to domestic violence. The ABORTION debate focuses on the baby. WHO focuses on the pregnant woman?

Pregnancy can often be an especially risky period for IPV (Intimate Partner Abuse), as many women report that abuse started or intensified when they became pregnant. Each year, an estimated 324,000 pregnant people in the United States are battered by their intimate partners. Homicide is a leading cause of traumatic death for pregnant and postpartum women, accounting for 31 percent of maternal injury deaths. Women suffering from domestic violence MAY seek a medical abortion to save her life. the pregnancy can be a product of domestic violence and NOT PROMISCUITY as many believe. A woman may choose to not birth a child into domestic violence. Not wanting to see her potential child SUFFER also from abuse is a MATERNAL instinct. But people view this as cruel and can't get behind such a decision.

Abuse often gets worse during pregnancy. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (also called ACOG) says that 1 in 6 abused women are first abused during pregnancy. More than 320,000 women are abused by their partners during pregnancy each year. 

Every pregnancy isn't flowers and butterflies. Those who are pro-life still maintain circumstances don't matter when it comes to the life of a child. There is no reason for a woman to MURDER a baby. This is a visceral, emotional stance. People respond and react based on emotions. On that same note, women are often depicted as OVERLY emotional during pregnancy. Their reactions are often viewed as over the top. Most often this hormone driven behavior is demonstrated by mood swings and sudden onsets of crying. People just accept it as part of being pregnant. This is also another side of pregnancy for many. Women who are taking medication for mental health disorders prior to pregnancy often have to go off their much-needed medication regulating their mental health stability. An unplanned pregnancy for a person with certain mental health disorders, pose medical problems and major decisions for the pregnant woman.

Scientist are beginning to study the brains of pregnant women. They have noticed significant changes in the pregnant BRAIN. The research is in its early stages and at this time. Positive aspects of the changing pregnant brain have been documented. One of the negative changes during pregnancy linked to changes in the brain is DEPRESSION. Even though the pregnant woman is seen as glowing, her brain may say something different. We all love the birth of a little bundle of joy. But don't realize, mommy may be going through some things whether she is aware of it or not.

A study of more than 100 new parents showed that pregnancy and birth cause changes in brain circuits that may be involved in empathy and bonding with the child. How wonderful. Will ongoing studies reveal not every woman experience this change during pregnancy? What are the consequences for the pregnant woman or even the mother after giving birth if this change in the brain's circuits do not take place?

Researchers also think some of the brain changes pregnant people undergo might prepare them not only for parenthood but for childbirth itself—by increasing pain tolerance, for example. That is an extraordinary thing in my eyes. I only believed superheroes underwent such changes. This should make one believe a woman's health care is in better hands of a physician than government restrictions with such extraordinary bodily changes.

A deeper understanding of the cellular and system-level mechanism will improve the understanding of how pregnancy remodels specific circuits to promote MATERNAL BEHAVIOUR. Pinpointing the synchronicity of gray and white matter changes that unfold in the maternal brain could be key to understanding the behavioral adaptions that emerge during and after pregnancy, such as honing the brain's visual and auditory responses to infant cues and eliciting maternal behavior. Such brain changes are linked to perinatal depression. Neuroanatomical changes observed over the course of a human pregnancy | Nature Neuroscience. Perinatal depression is a mood disorder that occurs during pregnancy and after childbirth. The symptoms can range from mild to severe.

Can you imagine a pregnant woman being given the news her unborn child may have genetic defects which will not allow it to go to full term while under the influence of brain changes already existing which cause depression? What if she was told her preexisting condition or conditions she developed while being pregnant is endangering her life under such brain changes? How much worse will this type of news be for the pregnant woman who is refused needed medical care due to government regulations while under the brain changes of pregnancy?

Science is proving a pregnant woman is more than a vehicle for carrying a baby. While being concerned for the growing child, we can't overlook the needs of the pregnant woman which have been unaddressed for centuries. SOMETIMES her medical needs REQUIRE an abortion. Pro-life supporters must know, even though a pregnant woman's body is designed to promote the development, survival, and care of a baby, changes in her brain can be a time in which she is most destressed. And when things go wrong during a pregnancy, not being able to make life-saving decisions can lay the groundwork or susceptibility to mental illness. 

No. I'm not saying that is why or a good reason to have an abortion. I'm saying the mother needs just as much attention to HER wellbeing as the developing fetus and science is just NOW acknowledging a pregnant woman's brain is no longer like it was before pregnancy. I'm saying pregnancy is a COMPLICATED and often times DANGEROUS time for a woman. 

The most noticeable changes to the study participant’s brain throughout her pregnancy was a reduction in cortical gray matter volume which persisted after birth. The majority of the outside layer of the brain consists of gray matter, which has a main job of processing information in the brain and helps control thoughts, emotions, memory, and muscle movement. This honing and fine-tuning of the material, the brain, is a process that happens early in development, again during puberty, and pregnancy probably reflects another wave of cortical refinement.

Additionally, scientists found noteworthy increases in white matterTrusted Source located deeper in the brain, which they reported peaked in the second trimester and returned to normal pre-pregnancy levels around the time of birth. About 60% of the brain consists of white matter, which connects different areas of the brain together to help with communication for focus, learning, and balancing while moving.

All of the above are the POSITIVES of the changes of the pregnant brain. But the research is in its infancy. When a woman's health care is being discussed, people should remember it is an INDIVIDUAL experience for EACH pregnant woman. People are ONLY thinking about and addressing concerns for the unborn child overlooking the mother's need for consideration. Pregnant women go through things!

In a previous post titled, Viagra Is Healthcare?, I listed reasons for a MEDICAL ABORTION. I want people to realize people are not advocating for abortions per se, but for the RIGHT to make their own health care choices during pregnancy. Not all pregnancies are the result of PROMISCUITY as Christians and men would have you believe. Things go wrong during pregnancy. Nine months is a long time where anything can happen to the pregnant woman or fetus. It is a vulnerable time with changes science has yet to understand. When looking at A+B=C (A= man, B= woman, C=fetus), we only focus on C. No one is saying anything about A, the men in the abortion debate. Pregnant women, B, lose their rights in regard to HER health. It is not A+B=C+D (D=those against women having choice in their health care). D becomes the one calling the shots for A, B, and C.

All I'm trying to say in this post is, don't forget about the pregnant woman. She may be going through something while pregnant that only her physician can help with. If ANYONE reading this post has experienced the negative, or never thought of circumstances during their pregnancy, PLEASE SHARE your story with me. People need to remember YOU in the equation of pregnancy. That you went through some things as the CONSEQUENCE of being pregnant.

Thank you in advance.

Trusted Sourcevolume, which persisted after giving birth. 

Viagra is Health Care?

 

We all know that cosmetic surgery is considered elective surgery, right? It is having a chosen surgical procedure which is not lifesaving in most cases. We are clear about ELECTIVE surgery, yet it is not regulated or focused on as an individual right in the way MEDICAL abortions are.

Women's health care has become a hot button topic. Defining what is and is not acceptable health care for women has been put up for public debate without a woman's voice having any more sway than any other voice.

Medical reasons which make it necessary to end a pregnancy are varied and the majority of the public are unaware of these reasons. A woman may be offered a termination for medical reasons (TFMR) if tests show that your baby is not developing as expected. This may be due to a serious genetic or structural condition. A woman may also be offered a TFMR if she has pregnancy complications that risks her life or to the baby’s life. 

The feelings a woman has when she needs to end a pregnancy for medical reasons are no less painful or valid than any other type of baby loss. Being told that you or your unborn baby are at risk is a painful and traumatic experience. Parents tell us that the guilt linked to making the decision can make it even harder. It is made even harder when the parents AREN'T allowed to make the decision.

The MOST common situation where a pregnant patient would need a procedure to terminate their pregnancy is a miscarriage. In medical terms, a miscarriage is called a spontaneous abortion, which can be confusing to patients. An estimated 10% to 20% of confirmed pregnancies in the US will end in miscarriage. The majority of these will complete without intervention; but some patients might require medication or surgical intervention, using the same procedure performed during an abortion.

The other large category of pregnancies where a physician might suggest or recommend an abortion is when the pregnant patient has a pre-existing disease that's associated with high maternal morbidity and mortality. This category includes a number of conditions, including cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease, Marfan syndrome, lupus nephritis, cardiomyopathy, and pulmonary hypertension. So just in that context, think of someone who has severe cardiac disease. By the time they make it to the third trimester and then at the time of delivery, they might not be able to survive delivery. 

Another key consideration when it comes to pregnancy and pre-existing disease is the use of teratogenic medications, such as medicines for Rheumatoid arthritis. These are medications that can cause birth defects or abnormalities in the embryo or fetus, and they include some of the most effective treatments across medicine. Unintended pregnancies occur even when someone is using highly effective birth control. And when physicians prescribe teratogenic medications to patients with reproductive potential, it is usually with the understanding that in case the patient became pregnant, abortion would be available to them as an option.

For some conditions, like lupus nephritis, there may not be any alternative, non-teratogenic therapies available. A disproportionate number of lupus patients are female, and lupus tends to manifest during childbearing years. And if they develop renal complications of lupus, which about 40% will, carrying a pregnancy to full term would be dangerous. The best evidence-based medications we have for that entity are both teratogenic, which harms the fetus.

With pregnancies indicating a clear need for medical intervention to end the pregnancy, the Republican party has decided that a pregnant woman and her doctor does not have the right to make those decisions.

Yet, when it comes to elective medical INTERVENTION to restore an ERECTION, only the man and his doctor has this delicate private discussion.

I know you're saying, "Wanting to have an erection after the biology of a man's body says its over is not equal to the death of a fetus," and you are right. But whether you believe the two are equal or not, what IF someone said WE DON'T CARE! We say no to YOUR medical need/desire/ What if your most FACT-based reasoning proves you, as a man, under a physician's care can still be told, sorry, WE will be making THIS decision for you.

As of June 2005, over 23 million men had been prescribed Viagra (sildenafil citrate) by more than 750,000 physicians worldwide. In 2022, ClinCalc DrugStats estimated that 1,127,720 patients in the United States were prescribed Viagra. Viagra is one of the most commonly prescribed and abused pharmaceuticals and is considered the most well-known treatment for erectile dysfunction (ED). it's abused! Isn't that a valid reason for it to be denied? Can you IMAGINE 23 million men's voices being ignored when it came to THEIR health care? Can you imagine 750,000 physicians being criminally charged for prescribing a medication? It IS crazy, right?

What makes the availability of certain types of health care for men be stamped as fine when LIFE THREATENING medical care is denied for women? Why isn't here an evaluation of ALL medical care to determine which should and should not be determined between a patient and a doctor? Let's put some more health care choices on the ballot.

Many feel justified in saying NO to select medical services offered to women. They say, "We are saving lives," with pride. But what are you DESTROYING in the process? The life you MAY be saving - you have NO investment in or future care of. IS THIS AN EGO TRIP by those who believe they are doing a good thing? What good have you done if a mother dies? 

The thing about health care is it BELONGS to an individual. I doubt any man, as he consults with his doctor, would want me there as he describes his erectile dysfunction, how long it has been a problem, and how he is suffering because of it. If there was another person in the doctor's office with men seeking Viagra, many would not do it. That is why there are so many Viagra commercials saying men can order the medication, without a doctor's prescription and it's mailed without a label so no one will know what they have ordered. Erectile dysfunction is as private as private can be.

The sad thing about this double standard of medical care is, there are millions of people who will fight for the right of MEN to have access to medical care THEY BELIEVE they need and are ENTITLED to.

It is hard to believe we live in a time of rampant cosmetic surgery just to get more likes online, and erectile dysfunction medication being mail order, and a woman can die or be criminalized for a medical abortion. But women have been here before.

An online magazine reached out to me years ago after reading a blog post I had made. This is that post they later printed in their magazine below.

My MoJo Online Submission in Issue 11

MEMOIR/SOCIAL COMMENTARY:

I NEVER THOUGHT I’D SEE THE DAY

By Dorothy Guyton

I think it was four-no five years ago I went to visit an elderly friend. Oh, that’s not a good description of this lady whose eyes and ears have seen and heard more things than most young minds could contain. She was a lady but was never ashamed of the hard labor she did with her dark palmed hands. These were hands that picked astonishing amounts of cotton and the same hands that slipped bail money in coffins from up North to Mississippi during Jim Crow for those imprisoned under made up charges with high set bail. Now, you get it. Now you know I was visiting a fountain of courage and wisdom who spoke in a paced, low alto, authoritative voice.

“Yes, Dorothy I would have loved to have more children, but I couldn’t. The doctor told me when I was in my thirties, I needed to have a hysterectomy, but my husband told the doctor no.”

Stunned for a moment, knowing I just misunderstood what had just been said; I asked the woman who spoke like spun silk to repeat what she just said. With a smile at my naive youth her skin color perked up and began to flush with undertones of renewed blood flow.

“Oh, yes Door-ah-they (I loved how she purred my name), a woman had to get her husband’s permission to have a hysterectomy back then even if her health was in jeopardy like mine was. It wasn’t until we divorced that I had the surgery. I think I suffer now for waiting so long.”

I left her presence haunted by the thought. I drove home swiftly with a new idea for a book swirling in my head aching to be released and jotted down on paper. I had grand plans for a four-part novelette.

It would begin with a slave woman and progress to the 1950’s, to 2009, and end in the year 2065, all dealing with the same core issue with different women linked to each other one way or another. 

(The story would begin) Aunt Addie was used to produce babies for her Master to sell. Her children all went for high prices, and each had an identifiable birthmark on them somewhere that looked like a star. Her prized off springs began to be known as a ‘Star Child’ and every slave owner wanted one. This was fine with Addie until she became pregnant by the love of her life who promised not to sell their love child, the master’s son.

Of course, the child was sold, love was lost, and it turned out she would never have another ‘Star Child.’ Years go by and the new Master (her old love) purchases a beautiful young girl who worked hard and now was the one counted on to birth the money children. When it comes time for the baby to be born old Aunt Addie was the midwife. The young girl pushed and pushed and then Aunt Addie saw it, the birthmark on the inside of the new young girl’s thigh in the shape of a star.

I can’t tell you the entire story, but not to be able to recognize or ever raise one of your children had to hit Old Aunt Addie hard. What had to hit even harder was that more ‘Star’ children were being birthed for market, with no say in the matter. Great little story of a past era we strive to leave in the past and move towards our future.

My, how time flies. The title of the book is going to be I Never Thought I’d See the Day. But I have lived to see the day. I live in a world where there is a debate whether a woman can have contraceptives, safe abortions, a place for breast exams, and procedures in a hospital that would save her life, but not if it endangered the unborn child’s life.

    Men are debating women’s issues without even asking for a woman’s advice. What a difference four or five years can make. I did not believe I would see a day, a time like this. My fictitious character, Aunt Addie, did not have any control or choice of her reproduction wishes, her own body. “How far have we come as women—or is the question —where are we headed as women?”

Say what you will, give reasonings as you will, but as long as Viagra is healthcare, so should medical abortions without interference from the public.

Sacrifice of Motherhood

Ask a woman who has been pregnant and givien birth to describe the experience and you will receive varying accounts. Some women enjoy and have the 'glow' of pregnacy while others find it a time filled with nausea and physical discomfort. A 2015 study by Polish researchers found mothers carrying sons had higher disgust sensitivity compared to mothers carrying daughters in the first trimester. While girl-moms’ queasiness decreased during the second trimester, boy-moms actually experienced elevated stomach-turning reactions.

Deliveries can be quick or drawn out with intense pain. There are those who want to be present and experience every nuance of giving birth, while others pray to be knocked out and awakened once the baby is delivered. Joanna was forced to remain in the tilted position 24 hours a day for two and a half months. After 75 days – and what is believed to be the longest labour ever recorded – Joanna gave birth to a healthy girl, Iga, and boy, Ignacy. The two babies were delivered by caesarean at a neo-natal clinic in Wroclaw, Poland.

Even with medical books available to walk a woman through pregnancy and delivery, there is always something the literature is unable to convey and could only be learned through the experience of BEING pregnant and GIVING birth. 

It surprises me how many people view being pregnant and giving birth as no more extrodinary or involved as going to the grocery store for food. They say it has been done for years, so there must not be that much to it. Many of the adverse effects of pragnancy women faced were turned into just old wive's tales. The old wives were on to something when they warned “gain a child and lose a tooth.” Women who have had three children forfeit four chompers more than those who have had two kids or fewer. Women whose first two children are the same sex, and who then go on to have a third child, are particularly at risk. Problems with gum disease and calcium absorption in pregnancy may leave moms vulnerable 

Carrying a child and giving birth, whether vaginally or by cesarean section, can stress muscles, ligaments, and nerves responsible for sexual function and bladder and bowel control. The U.S. has one of the highest maternal mortality rates among developed countries, according to data from the Orginisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. There were 20 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births in 2019, more than double the rate just two decades ago.

More than half of the women, 52%, died after delivery. The total numbers are likely higher thab reported, as deaths from suicide and drug overdoses among people who recently gave birth may not be listed as postpartum deaths. Black women are more than twice as likely to die as a result of chilkdbirth than White women, underscoring racial and ethnic diparities.

The most common complications women report after giving birth include pain after sex, incontinence, pain at the incision site following a cesarean section, and postpartum depression, Gunter said. Once the baby is born, a woman’s blood pressure may spike dangerously. She may hemorrhage or develop egg-sized blood clots. Her emotions may plummet or soar amid rapidly fluctuating hormones. Crippling lower back pain may sear on one side of the body, while on the other, the abdominal muscles separate after months of straining to contain a growing human. These changes happen while her newborn baby needs to eat once every two to three hours, if not more frequently.

In a first-of-its-kind, ground-breaking analysis of pre- and post-pregnancy brain scans published in 2016, researchers found mothers lose gray matter during pregnancy—and these losses endure for at least two years. 

Even with all we know about pregnany and childbirth, there are surprises. Because being pregnant and delivering a baby is much more demanding on the body, serious thought should be given whether to bnecome a mother or not and the choice should be made by the person affected the most - the potencial mother. Motherhood is a sacrificial act filled with mystery and can even be seen in the animal kingdom. Moms do and give in ways not even noticed by themselves.

One similarities moms have with an animal is how they carry their newborn. Regardless of whether they are left- or right-handed, human moms tend to cradle their babies on the left side of their bodies, especially in the early months. Observed off the coast of a Russian island, walrus moms tend to keep their babies on the left while bobbing along the waves, and their calves swam over to their mother’s left side before diving to suckle. 

We all know mother protect their children fiercely The widespread phenomenon of maternal aggression may involve oxytocin, a neurochemical also related to birth and lactation. In a 2017 lab experiment, rat moms stopped attacking a threat once oxytocin signaling in part of their brains was blocked. Some studies have found that oxytocin levels in moms increase at the onset of labor and during labor compared to 1 or 2 weeks before labor, reaching a peak just when the head of the baby is delivered. In another study, levels of oxytocin were found to increase slowly until delivery and then decrease up to 8 weeks postpartum. One group reported higher levels of oxytocin at 36 weeks of pregnancy than 1 day after delivery or later.

Mothers are willing to go to the death for their children. Here are some animals who go above and beyond for their offsprings. I ask you to picture a 'human' mom and the sacrifice she makes with her decision to become a mom. Motherhood (pregnancy and delivery included) is not for the faint of heart.

Ever the overachiever, the female octopus can lay up to hundreds of thousands of eggs in one go. Over the eggs’ development period — anywhere from 40 days to 53 months in the case of one record-breaking species, Graneledone boreopacifica, these maternal cephalopods gently blow water currents over the eggs to provide them with oxygen and keep them clean. Unwilling to leave her brood to hunt for food, the mother octopus often resorts to eating one or two of her own tentacles for sustenance while waiting for them to hatch.

Chicken moms take their duties very seriously. Creating an endless amount of calcium carbonate for eggshells is a difficult task, so if chickens don't get enough calcium in their diets, they'll actually dissolve their own bones to make baby-housing shells. 

Like bears, the mother Pacific gray whales go hungry for months while still needing to produce high-calorie milk for their babies. During this time they may lose as much as 8 tons of weight.

For many females spiders, they attach their egg cocoons to their webs and watch over them until the babies hatch. Once her children have hatched, the mother continues to eat, but regurgitates most of her meals as a nutrient soup for her offspring while the spiderlings stay in their mother's web. When the babies are around a month old, the mother spider rollover on her back allowing the spiderlings to clamber over her, kill her by injecting their venom and digestive enzymes into her body, and eat her. When the babies are around a month old, the mother spider rolls over on her back allowing the spiderlings to clamber over her, kill her by injecting their venom and digestive enzymes into her body, and eat her. 

In earwig nation, the idea of unconditional maternal love isn't a given. When earwig mothers have a clutch of babies (or nymphs), the mothers will sniff out a chemical signal from the healthier ones and proceed to provide more abundant care and feeding to those babies. The babies that are identified as hungrier and less robust will be given less attentive parenting and feeding. 

Mama Panda is a coldhearted, favorite-choosing shrew of a parent. Or a little less dramatically: Mama Panda will often give birth to two babies but almost always only raises one.  Panda moms have to expend an enormous amount of energy to even digest their own food, and providing milk or resources for little ones is extremely difficult. By concentrating their energy on one of the babies, the chance of having one healthy offspring seems better than having two weak progeny.

We have no shortage of stories about infanticide in nature. Most of us who have been in a fourth-grade classroom know that hamsters are one of the most well-known creatures to devour their young, along with mice and other rodents. But long-tailed skinks that inhabit the island of Lanyu (just off the coast of Taiwan) If they feel they're threatened by predators, the skinks immediately gobble up their own eggs.

Birth Control means Controlling Births

Whenever people talk about pregnancy it is always in a warm, loving, gushy, feelings kind of way. The thought of a new bundle of joy arriving soon delights those in proximity to the expectant mother. Everyone loves a baby. Or do they?

In early history of the family, children were not always viewed as a godsend. Oh, they were needed and necessary for various reasons, but there was not the joy and delight experienced by modern expecting parents. Male children were extremely important. They would inherit the families wealth and carry on the family name. Boy babies were desperately wanted. And if a woman failed to deliver the 'man' child, there could be consequences. 

In many early cultures, men could dissolve a marriage or take another wife if a woman was infertile. However, the early Christian church was a trailblazer in arguing that marriage was not contingent on producing offspring. The early Christian church held the position that if you can procreate you must not refuse to procreate. But they always took the position that they would annul a marriage if a man could not have sex with his wife, but not if they could not conceive. Pregnancy has always mattered to men. Pregnancy for women, or the inability of, could be a time of anxiety and fear.

In modern society, it is almost tabboo to say you don't want to have any children. People can not fathom why someone would prefer to be childless. Some research found a negative relation between these variables: parenthood was associated with decreased marriage quality, increased marital conflict, more severe symptoms of depression, and decreased marital satisfaction–especially when pregnancy was unplanned. Having children is not all fun and games. 

Children are hard on a marriage. Not only is raising children time-consuming and tiring, it is also related to a frequent exposure to stressors. With each added child there is added stress taking time and attentian away from the married couple as they manage the stressors of child rearing. The stressors may outweigh the resources the couple has at some point. Even if partners are fulfilled as parents, their relational wellbeing may be threatened due to parental distress. 

So, throughout history, ways to decrease the number of children conceived has been practiced. People knew the number of children they had affected the entire family in varous ways. How many children were people having in the days when they were not successfully able to control births?

Who gave birth to the most children in history? Between 1725-1765, Valentina Vassilyev was apparently rather busy. According to a local monestary's records, the prolific Russian mother popped out 16 pairs of twins, 7 sets of triplets, and 4 sets of quadruplets, ove 27 separate lobours. The grand total: 69 children. There are many skeptics regarding this record. But, if controlling births is not practiced, there is a probability of having a large number of children. Sixty-nine children may seem like far too many. For some, 3, are far too many. It all depends on the ability of the parents to be able to care for the children. Finances are important, but emotional and mental stability to raise a large number of children is a must.

The verified record holder for most births is a Ugandan mother named Miriam Nabatanzi, who has a rare genetic condition called hyperovulation, and gave birth to 44 children across 15 births from 1993 to 2016. She is a single mother to her 38 surviving kids.

For men, and the number of children they conceive are off the charts. While records are difficult to confirm, it probably is true that Genghis Khan has fathered the most children in history, as estimates range between 1,000 and 3,000 direct offspring from his enormous harem. A 2003 study estimated that 16 million men alive today are direct descendants of Genghis Khan. Similar studies have shown a Y-chromosome lineage linked to at least ten other extraordinarily prolific dads, including the Qing Dynasty ruler Giocangga. Why haven't science come up with an oral or injectable contraceptive for men?

More recently, a court case in the Netherlands exposed an alarming fact. A Dutch musician in his early 40’s named Jonathan Jacob Meijer, had fathered between 550 and 600 children through sperm donation. Meijer is a bit of a Dutch lion, with “a mane of curly blonde hair.” In online ads promoting his suitability as a sperm donor, Meijer has described himself as a “musical Viking donor.”

When we think about whether or not to have children, we believe it should be the sole decision of the future parents. But, that was not always the case.

In Ancient Rome the law provides too much freedom to householders whether to admit a newborn child or not. In order to make a decision, all family members including relatives and neighbors give their opinions. Because during that time unwanted and disabled children could be left to die on the streets. Law gives the father, who has whole authority on the family, the right to choose the life of his child. The accepted child would be welcomed by a ceremony in the family. There are several symbolic scenes such as the oldest man in the family putting the child to the ground and hanging a flashy crown outside of the house door to welcome a child. During the first 3-4 days, they hang a chain of amulet to the girl’s neck and bulla to the boy’s neck. Girls and boys get their names after 8 and 9 days of their birth respectively which is a day after die lustrous, a time period when it is no longer feared the infant would die. 

As we continue to travel through time, children are still not viewed as a gift. The medieval society was primarily an agrarian one (community whose economy is based on producing and maintaining crops and farmland). And the family unit made the agrarian economy work. From an economic standpoint, nothing was more valuable to a peasant family than sons to help with the plowing and daughters to help with the household. To have children was, essentially, one of the primary reason to marry. Children were valued for the labor and production they could add to a poor family. Poor people had many children and did not practice controlling births.

Among the nobility, children would perpetuate the family name and increase the family's holdings through advancement in service to their liege lords and through advantageous marriages. Some of these unions were planned while the bride and groom-to-be were still in the cradle. Children were still used to increase wealth and status of a family. They were born with a job to help their family.

In 1325 and the outbreak of the first plague epidemic (bubonic), testators (a person who has made a will or given a legacy) had on average 2.8 live children. Between 1350 and 1375, the average dropped to 1.9 and continued to decrease, reaching a low of 1.4 children per testator between 1400 and 1424. To acheive this low number of children within a marriage, before the invention of reliable birth control, there must have been abstinance. Currently, there is a turning tide against the use of contraceptives, IVF, and abortions. The 1300's proved conception can be controlled without medical intervention. You just may not like how it is accomplished though.

During the 1300's when births were more than likely controlled through abtinance, life was not easy. Life was harsh with a limited diet and little comfort. Women were subordinate to men, in both the peasant and noble classes, and were expected to ensure the smooth running of the household. Children had a 50% survival rate beyond age one, and began to contribute to family life around age twelve. In 1300-1400, the life expectancy was 45.4 years of age.

Until about a century ago, many spouses died by their mid-forties, and many babies were born out of wedlock. Many children became orphans or were abandoned due to an inability to care for them. In medieval Europe, for example, people died early from disease, malnutrition, and other problems. One consequence of early mortality was that many young children could expect to outlive at least one of their parents and thus essentially were raised in one-parent families or in stepfamilies.

During the American colonial period, different family types abounded, and the nuclear family was by no means the only type. Children in colonial families were numerous and averaged between seven to ten in each household. The number of children at home varied, however, for a variety of reasons. The most common of these being (sadly) early death of children. Roughly half of the off-spring would not reach maturity. Nomadic Native American groups had relatively small nuclear families, while nonnomadic groups had larger extended families. Because nuclear families among African Americans slaves were difficult to achieve, slaves adapted by developing extended families, adopting orphans, and taking in other people not related by blood or marriage. Many European parents of colonial children died because average life expectancy was only 45 years. The one-third to one-half of children who outlived at least one of their parents lived in stepfamilies or with just their surviving parent. Mothers were so busy working the land and doing other tasks that they devoted relatively little time to child care, which instead was entrusted to older children or servants.

In 1800, most women in the U.S. had 7 children but that number has steadily decreased over the years, with the exception of the Baby Boom (when the U.S. fertility rate jumped to 3.62). In 2018, U.S. woman had 1.7 children on average.

By the 1900s, parents began to treat children more like little people and dressed them like kids, not mini adults. It was the custom to pose in front of a photographer's backdrop for family photos. Since there were no color photographs, artists sometimes painted over the black-and-white photos. This must have been the start of the wam fuzzy feelings towards having children. They were no longer viewed as bargaining chips for lucrative marriages, or free labor. Children were just children. Now a precious gift. So no need for trying to control births. Bring on the babies!

Moving much forward in US history, an important change in American families occurred during the 1940s after World War II ended. As men came home after serving in the military in Europe and Japan, books, magazines, and newspapers exhorted women to have babies, and babies they did have. People got married at younger ages and the birth rate soared, resulting in the now famous baby boom generation. Many families during the 1950s did indeed fit the Leave It to Beaver model of the breadwinner-homemaker suburban nuclear family. Following the Depression of the 1930s and the war of the 1940s, the 1950s seemed an almost idyllic decade. Life was easy and good. Why would anyone want to control births?

The pill was first prescribed exclusively for mestrual regulation, and only to married women. The emergence of the women's rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s was significantly related to the availability of the pill and the control over fertility it enabled. This capability allowed women to make choices about other life arenas, especially work. It reduced the risk of unintended pregnancy in the context of the sexual revolution of the '60s and established family planning as the cultural norm for the U.S. and in many other countries of the world. The first pill was effective and simple to use. The theory was that the risk of pregnancy and the stigma that went along with it prevented single women from having sex and married women from having affairs. Since women on the Pill could control their fertility, single and married women could have sex anytime, anyplace, and with anyone without the risk of pregnancy.

This sounds absolutely retched doesn't it? Women having sex free willy-nilly and dodging the consequences of pregancy. THOSE WITHOUT SIN CAST THE FIRST STONE, John 8:7-11. Men have always had the ability to decide when they wanted to engage in the duties of fatherhood. Notice I said men chose when to enter fatherhood and not when to become a father. There's a difference. 

Nearly half (46%) of men ages 15 to 44 with biological children report that at least one of their children was born outside of marriage, and 31% report that all of their children were born outside of marriage. There are also 2.9 million men (2.4%) who are living with an unmarried partner and have biological children with that partner. Nearly one in ten men have children with more than one person. Of the 72.2 million fathers, 5.9 million (8.2%) have never been married. Nearly half (46 percent) of fathers with multiple-partner fertility had at least one child within a marriage and one child outside a marriage.

A new Child Trends study estimates that 15 percent of men, or more than one in seven, will father children with more than one woman by the age of 40. According to the study, Men Who Father Children with More Than One Woman: A Contemporary Portrait of Multiple-Partner Fertility, five percent of men will father children with more than one woman by age 25. This increases to eight percent at age 30, to 12 percent at age 35, and to 15 percent at age 40. Moreover, these men have more children than men who have multiple children with the same woman: More than one-third of men (36 percent) who had children with multiple women had four or more children. 

These numbers could be higher, but men have the luxury of not being tied down by an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. They do not even have to acknowledge a pregnancy. The child being born may not ever have an impact on his life. 43% of U.S. children live without their father. 90% of homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes. 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes. maybe this is one reason women say my body, my choice. 

I hate to say this but, women want to control their number of births, and men are not so concerned about controlling births. Sadly, women who want to be in control of births are viewed as promiscuous and careless. While throughout history, men have not been labled as permiscous and carless for having unplanned and unwanted pregnancies.

By the 1900's we entered a period where children were not seen as a burden or just another mouth to feed. People welcomed a new life into their home. Sexual freedom for both men and women, led to an increase in pregnancies. To solve the problem of controlling pregnancy, it will take both the man and the woman. just as it takes two to make a child. Taking away the freedom of one, while the other has no accountability is not a balanced solution. There are so many alarming statistics about pregnancy, such as teen girls are usually impregnated by an adult male. Teen girls are unable to give consent, but the adult fathers are not prosecuted. Pregnancy is complicated in many cases.

Birth control means controlling births. It has been practiced for centuries in various ways, some in not so pretty or kind ways. The life of the child planned or unplanned, can be beautiful or the substance of what tragic movies are made of. The ability to control births aids in the health of society.