BIRTHS AND BABIES
For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark.
—Matthew 24:38
463 Number Of Babies Per Year
The annual number of births in the world is roughly estimated at 95 million, or 3 babies every second. Over three-fifths of the births are in Asia, one-fifth in Europe, and one-tenth each in Africa and the Americas.
In less-developed countries, there are 40 births per 1,000 people. Whereas in developed countries, there are 18 births per 1,000 people.
464 More Boys Than Girls
At birth there is about a 6 percent excess of males over females. However, males suffer a higher mortality at every age, so that the excess of males is gradually reduced. In any generation following birth, the males outnumber females up to about age 50. Beyond that age, females show an excess.
465 Infant Life Expectancy
Under present conditions, almost three-fourths of newborn babies should live to their 65th birthday. At the beginning of the century, only two-fifths were expected to be able to survive that long.
Infant mortality however in less-developed countries is 110 deaths per 1,000 births, versus 22 deaths per 1,000 births in developed countries.
466 Safest Time For Babies
According to insurance statistics, summer is the safest season for babies. In the warm months infant mortality is low—the rate for June being about 15 percent below the December figures. The principal communicable diseases of childhood and the acute respiratory infections are less prevalent then. Because the environment seems to be more favorable in summer, it is also a good time for babies to be born. If they have the summer months to gain strength, they are better able to resist the annual winter bouts with contagion.
467 Of Weights And Heights
The average weight at birth for boys is 7–4/5 lbs. and for girls 7–2/5 lbs. An infant weighing less than 5½ lbs. is considered premature. The average length at birth is 20½ inches for boys and 20 inches for girls.
The heaviest newborn child born in modern times was a boy born in Turkey in 1961 and weighing 24 lbs., 4 oz. The lowest-weight surviving newborn child is 10-oz. Marion Chapman born in 1938 in England. She was 12½ inches long. She was born unattended. On her 21st birthday, she weighed 106 lbs.
468 Life With The Storks
Storks have long been identified with babies, but few people realize what a shining example of proper family life they set.
When the male arrives to relieve the sitting female, he alights on the edge of the nest, lifts his bill skyward, and clappers it ceremonially. Even if the two meet dozens of times a day, the ceremony is always repeated. The young soon learn to imitate the act and courteously rise each time a parent returns.
The parents have a sacrificial devotion to the young. It is illustrated by the story of a mother keeping her young covered, and fanning her wings. While a fire swept through a thatched roof the mother was blackened with soot. No wonder a stork’s nest on one’s roof is supposed to foretoken good fortune.
—Virginia Whitman
469 Acupuncture For Painless Birth
According to a London newsreport, Chinese acupuncture techniques used in childbirth for the first time in Britain in 1975 helped a first-time mother deliver her baby in just 45 minutes.
Dr. Robert Butterworth, 75, said that the method greatly reduced the pain of the birth pangs. Mrs. Gill Berry, 28, needed no anesthetic during the birth at Birch Hill Hospital in Rochdale.
470 Tender, Loving Care
According to a British doctor, unloved babies do not grow normally. At an international conference of family doctors held in Toronto, Dr. G. C. Jenkins said nurses caring for unloved babies are taught to look at them and talk to them until the babies fix their eyes on the nurses’ faces. When the babies become aware of the nurses’ faces, they will start to gain weight and grow.
One reason unloved babies do not grow normally could be the effect their unhappiness has on the digestive system. Dr. Jenkins said that a happy baby’s stomach is producing the hydrochloric acid necessary for digestion, whereas the acid production is shut off if somebody upsets the baby.
—Prairie Overcomer
471 Love Made The Difference
Dr. Rene Spitz of New York compared two sets of infants in two institutions. In one institution called “Nursery,” the mothers took care of their own infants. In the second called “Foundlinghome,” one overworked nurse took care of 12 infants. The test results: “Nursery” babies began with an IQ of 101.5. This rose in one year to 105. “Foundling” babies started with IQ 124, but declined to 45 within two years. Moreover, in two years, 37% of “Foundling” children died; but in five years, “Nursery” did not lose a child.
472 Test-Tube Babies
Dr. Douglas Bevis, a professor at the University of Leeds, England, said in 1975 that eggs taken from childless mothers had been fertilized by male sperm in test tubes and then successfully replaced in mothers’ wombs. He claimed the pregnancies and children were normal.
One, he said was born in Britain and the other two in Europe. Bevis refused to name the doctors or parents involved. He said he knew of the cases but was not personally involved.
Back in Leeds, Bevis stuck to his guns. “I’ll publish my paper on the subject in my own good time,” he said. “I am perfectly able to do so. No one is going to hasten me by casting skepticism on what I have said.”
—Associated Press
473 “Keep Trying”
A London newspaper carried an ad reading, “Father of three sons desires a daughter. Can anyone send suggestions?” More than a thousand answers were received, including an American’s advice to “keep trying.”
—The American Magazine
474 Birthday Happenings
Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Plato and Philip Melancton died on their birthdays. John Huss, the martyr, was burned at the stake on his birthday. Timoleon, a successful general, and Philip of Macedon gained their greatest victories on their birthdays.
Charles Kingsley was at the seaside on one of his birthdays, and there on the beach he gave his heart to the Lord. His second birthday was thus on the same day as his first. Every year on his birthday David Livingstone repeated his covenant with his Master. The most tragic birthday party ever celebrated took place in the palace of Herod the King.
—A. Naismith
475 Four-Week Castle As Birthday Gift
The Monatsschloos, a vast palatial edifice which still towers above the city of Salzburg, Austria, was a birthday offering to a fair lady. The giver was the mighty Count of Hohenems, ruler of Salzburg from 1612 to 1619. The recipient was the beauteous Barbara Mabon. The promise made in a moment of tenderness was soon forgotten. When Barbara’s birthday was only four weeks away, the count suddenly remembered his pledge. It was not too late.
He summoned his subjects and eloquently described his predicament. He called on them to help him. And they did not fail him.
Several thousand mighty masons, bricklayers and carpenters went to work to redeem their prince’s word. They labored night and day, in relays, without any appreciable rest or pay and completed the stronghold just in time for Barbara’s natal anniversary. It is an all-time speed record.
476 Birth Months And Famous People
The following are birth-dates of famous persons by months:
January—Franklin D. Roosevelt; Paul Revere; George Wash. Carver; Mozart; Daniel Webster; Edgar Allan Poe; Ben Franklin; Sir Isaac Newton; Frederic the Great; Albert Schweitzer
February—George Washington; Abraham Lincoln; Charles Dickens; Thomas A. Edison; Longfellow; Chopin; Darwin
March—Bell; Michaelangelo; Elizabeth Browning; Oliver Wendell Holmes; Luther Burbank: Toscanini; Bach; Livingstone; Einstein
April—Charlemagne; Booker T. Wash; Leonardo da Vinci; Oliver Cromwell; Audubon
May—Truman; Kennedy; Tschaikovsky; Nightingale; Queen Vic toria; Columbus; Emerson
June—Stevenson; Harriet Beecher Stowe; John Wesley; Helen Keller
July—Julius Caesar; Thoreau; Rembrandt; Hemingway; Mussolini; Isaac Watts; Henry Ford; John Calvin; Garibaldi
August—Tennyson; Tolstoi; Napoleon; Sir Walter Scott; Goethe
September—O Henry; Faraday; Alexander the Great
October—Eisenhower; Gandhi; Webster; Erasmus
November—Martin Luther; Carnegie; Churchill; Mark Twain; Robert L. Stevenson; Mendelssohn; Nehru; George Eliot; Billy Sunday.
December—Mary Queen of Scotts; Beethoven; Charles Wesley; Isaac Newton; Louis Pasteur; Rudyard Kipling; Walt Disney.
477 Epigram On Births & Babies
• A perfect example of minority rule is a baby in the house.
• “A baby crying for one hour uses enough potential energy to climb to the top of the Washington monument.”
—Robert G. Lee
• Before marriage, the man and girl both think themselves “boss.” After marriage, the “boss” problem is pushed around. When the child arrives, all admit that the child is “boss,” for when the child cries, there is no question who is boss.
• “My son,” said Themistocles to his baby, “you are the most powerful man in all Greece. The Athenians rule the Helenes, I rule the Athenians, your mother rules me, and you rule your mother.”
• A baby has a way of making a man out of his father and a boy out of his grandfather.
—Angie Papadakis
• A young ensign was pacing the floor when the glad tidings arrived by telegram. “MAXINE GAVE BIRTH TO A LITTLE GIRL THIS A. M. BOTH DOING NICELY.” On the message at the bottom was the sticker, “When you want a boy, call Western union.”
• Personal notice in the Dayton News: “The staff of LeRoy’s Keepsake Diamond Center wishes to congratulate our office girl on the birth of her baby boy which weighed in at 18,176 carats.”
• A Hollywood maternity shop received this Note: “Dear Sir: You have not yet delivered that maternity dress I ordered. Please cancel the order. My delivery was faster than yours.”
—Los Angeles Herald and Express
• Someone has given this definition of a baby: “A baby is a small member of the home that makes love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, the bankroll smaller, the home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for.”
See also: Children ; Marriages ; Middle Age , Old Age ; Youth.