THE BIRTH RACE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 66, 10 December 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE BIRTH RACE

How Nature Rights The

Balance

Twins, once regarded as uncommon, are now being born in such numbers that insurance rates against such an event have been sharply increased. Doctors, nurses and registrars all report a big jump in the birth of twins, while the number of triplets has also shown a rise. . "II is Nature’s way ot redressing the ba la lice," a medical man told a London pressman recently. “The prevalence of twins and triplets is tine to the tact that women are marrying later these days, and the chances of twins being born increases with the mother s age “The woman who thinks she will avoid a large family by marrying late deceives herself. If her children are born when she is over 30 she is quite likely to have twins or triplets. “One woman patient of mine put off her marriage until she was 35 because she did not want a large family. I attended her in her three confinements. She had seven children before she was 40 —two sets of twins and triplets. And there is not a happier woman in the country today I “I have attended more twin births in the last live years than in the whole of my previous 15 years' experience. “These twins are not weaklings. On tlie contrary, most of them are fine, healthy children, who grow up to be far better citizens than the unfortunate only child. “There has been a progressive decline in early marriages in the last SO years. In 1851 the marriage rate of women between the ages of -0 and 24 was 1495 per 100,000. In 1931 the figure was 1154. “I would not be surprised to see the birth-rate going up again soon. Nature has her own methods of dealing with things.”