Looking up family history...and one set of great great grandparents?
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Looking up family history...and one set of great great grandparents?
Had 11 live births. 5 died before the age of 10, most in first years. One died as a teenager.
This was a wealthy family, with a father who had been a Mayor of New York.
Vaccines save lives. Women don't need to have 10+ kids in the hopes of having at least one survives.
This whole-anti-vax nonsense is horrific.
Ask your elders about family birth/death history. You might be surprised.
Also, it's hard to wrap one's modern mind around naming new babies after babies that died. I realize that many families cycle through a small set of names, but reusing the same name for baby after baby, hoping one would finally live?
Ouch. No wonder there is so much family trauma.
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Also, it's hard to wrap one's modern mind around naming new babies after babies that died. I realize that many families cycle through a small set of names, but reusing the same name for baby after baby, hoping one would finally live?
Ouch. No wonder there is so much family trauma.
My grandmother lost most of her family to the 'Spanish Flu', and she never mentioned it to me.
It was common in my grandparent's generation. This was common for much of human history: you had to have 10 kids to hope for maybe 3-4 to survive and have kids.
When did this change?
With vaccines.
Vaccines combined with reliable Birth Control have been the biggest improvements to everyone's quality of life and human rights.
Editing to add: Antibiotics! too!
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My grandmother lost most of her family to the 'Spanish Flu', and she never mentioned it to me.
It was common in my grandparent's generation. This was common for much of human history: you had to have 10 kids to hope for maybe 3-4 to survive and have kids.
When did this change?
With vaccines.
Vaccines combined with reliable Birth Control have been the biggest improvements to everyone's quality of life and human rights.
Editing to add: Antibiotics! too!
@kristinHenry I think antibiotics also belong there, but yeah, absolutely.
Offhand I remember one of my grandfathers had two siblings that my mother knew, and 4 more who hadn't survived to adulthood.
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@kristinHenry I think antibiotics also belong there, but yeah, absolutely.
Offhand I remember one of my grandfathers had two siblings that my mother knew, and 4 more who hadn't survived to adulthood.
@Anke Yes! Antibiotics definitely belong there.
But I'm guessing that a lot of these sweet babies would have lived, if they'd had vaccines.
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Also, it's hard to wrap one's modern mind around naming new babies after babies that died. I realize that many families cycle through a small set of names, but reusing the same name for baby after baby, hoping one would finally live?
Ouch. No wonder there is so much family trauma.
In my family (couple generations back) there were two brothers called Antonio and Antonio Segundo (Antonio Second).
As the first one never died, the second son was always called Segundo his whole life.
He was the backup son. To make sure the oldest son carries the important family name (Antonio). No matter which one the oldest was. If the first one died, they would have started calling the second Antonio.
It was absolutely normalized.
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Looking up family history...and one set of great great grandparents?
Had 11 live births. 5 died before the age of 10, most in first years. One died as a teenager.
This was a wealthy family, with a father who had been a Mayor of New York.
Vaccines save lives. Women don't need to have 10+ kids in the hopes of having at least one survives.
This whole-anti-vax nonsense is horrific.
Ask your elders about family birth/death history. You might be surprised.
Every family, no matter how rich or privileged, every family had these horrific losses.
Imagine being pregnant, again and again, and knowing that maybe a few might live.
That's some serious physical and emotional trauma.
We are only a couple of generations of women expecting to have most of their children survive.
This is a huge shift.
If you were to ask any woman pushing a designer stroller in Noe Valley right now, do you think your baby will die within 5 years? They'd look at you as crazy
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My grandmother lost most of her family to the 'Spanish Flu', and she never mentioned it to me.
It was common in my grandparent's generation. This was common for much of human history: you had to have 10 kids to hope for maybe 3-4 to survive and have kids.
When did this change?
With vaccines.
Vaccines combined with reliable Birth Control have been the biggest improvements to everyone's quality of life and human rights.
Editing to add: Antibiotics! too!
@kristinHenry
Good edit. I have sent many, many blessings to Sir Alexander Fleming. Without antibiotics I would have died last year. -
My grandmother lost most of her family to the 'Spanish Flu', and she never mentioned it to me.
It was common in my grandparent's generation. This was common for much of human history: you had to have 10 kids to hope for maybe 3-4 to survive and have kids.
When did this change?
With vaccines.
Vaccines combined with reliable Birth Control have been the biggest improvements to everyone's quality of life and human rights.
Editing to add: Antibiotics! too!
@kristinHenry Hygiene, too. Availability of drinking water saved more lives than all drugs.
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My grandmother lost most of her family to the 'Spanish Flu', and she never mentioned it to me.
It was common in my grandparent's generation. This was common for much of human history: you had to have 10 kids to hope for maybe 3-4 to survive and have kids.
When did this change?
With vaccines.
Vaccines combined with reliable Birth Control have been the biggest improvements to everyone's quality of life and human rights.
Editing to add: Antibiotics! too!
The 1918-1920 influenza epidemic was a particularly deadly variant of the disease.
We haven't see such a deadly variant since.
And yes, we have vaccines for it now.
Even so this year's winter influenza surge in New Zealand appears to be roughly twice as deadly as the average, and yet absolutely nothing like 1918-20.
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Looking up family history...and one set of great great grandparents?
Had 11 live births. 5 died before the age of 10, most in first years. One died as a teenager.
This was a wealthy family, with a father who had been a Mayor of New York.
Vaccines save lives. Women don't need to have 10+ kids in the hopes of having at least one survives.
This whole-anti-vax nonsense is horrific.
Ask your elders about family birth/death history. You might be surprised.
@kristinHenry I was not vaccinated during my childhood. Only later when I had children of my own. Why? Even though views had changed my parents were still deeply influenced by their Jehovah's Witnesses faith that had taken an anti-vaccine stance in the 1930s. I myself was a JW until I left that faith in 2007. But yes indeed, vaccines have been an incredible advance in disease prevention. Cheers, -Randy
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