MASSACHUSETTSThe Amazing Baby Boom of Billerica, Mass.20 families had 11 children and 24 families had 12 children...large families were typical of early New England.

New England Historical Society ^ | 2022 | New England Historical Society

[daniel1212]

When the War of 1812 broke out, the Town of Billerica, Mass., was in the middle of an extraordinary baby boom.

Twelve other families in the town had 13 children. Five had 14 offspring and one had 15. Twenty-six families each had 10 children, 20 families had 11 children and 24 families had 12 children. The largest family had 21 children by two wives. That meant 90 families accounted for 1,043 children.

The average Billerica family had an average of 11.6 children per family. The town’s population grew almost exclusively because of its fecundity. In 1810, the population of the entire town grew to 1,289.

The large families of Billerica were typical of early New England. The region had the world’s lowest annual death rate, less than one percent. And its birth rate exceeded 3 percent...

Cotton Mather mentioned one woman who had at least 22 children and another who had at least 23 — by one husband. Of those, 19 survived to adulthood. Mather also mentioned a third woman who had 27 children...

Rev. John Sherman, the first minister of Watertown, had 26 children by two wives, included 20 by his last wife. Rev. Samuel Willard, a minister in Groton, Mass., and Boston who served as vice president of Harvard college, had 20 children...

The high birth rate accounted for the uniquely Yankee character of the region. Between 1640 and 1845, immigration to the New England colonies only reached about one percent.

[daniel1212]

Be single, celibate and continent, or be married and have as many children as God will give, in a life of temperance. Besides negative birth rate, spoiled, over sensitive, children, one more of the effects of contraception:

Women's Libration March, Washington, D.C. 1970. Library of Congress - https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-and-womens-liberation-movement/

[daniel1212]

Ping

[BobL]

Oh please, that was 1812. It was FAR EASIER for women to have kids back then, as they didn’t have to take them to karate, violin lessons, gymnastics, after-school learning, and save up for their college. Not to mention having to buy their kids the latest I-Phone and Gaming Console. And don’t even get me started with the ABSOLUTE REQUIREMENT for all parents to keep up with the Jones’.

All they had to deal with was figuring out where the next meal would come from and how they would fight off the Indians, who they knew were only a mile or so from their settlement and would scalp them and enslave their kids.

Those parents had it FAR EASIER than today’s parents, who are forced to live under constant stress - unbearable stress for today’s parents.

[Vermont Lt]

The part they don’t talk about….there is nothing else to do there. Not in 1814. Not now.

Get drunk, make babies. Repeat.

[Pollard]

I went to school with a couple of kids that were previously from Billerica. Celeste and Paul, olive skinned. Last name was not Italian at all.

[Irenic]

They needed help on the homesteads.

[daniel1212]

Oh please, that was 1812. It was FAR EASIER for women to have kids back then, as they didn’t have to take them to karate, violin lessons, gymnastics, after-school learning, and save up for their college. Not to mention having to buy their kids the latest I-Phone and Gaming Console. And don’t even get me started with the ABSOLUTE REQUIREMENT for all parents to keep up with the Jones’.

But you left out teaching kids from grade school (or earlier) about gender-neutrality, non-binary persons, reproductive freedom (to murder, etc.) And look what else they missed:

92% of HIV infections among men aged 13 to 24 was attributed to male-to-male sexual contact, and young gay and bisexual men accounted for 83% (6,385) of all new HIV diagnoses in people aged 13 to 24 in 2019, and 81% of diagnoses of HIV infection among all Adolescents and Young Adults.

In addition to which is the financial cost which has been going for decades:

The United States is expected to spend more than $26 billion annually on HIV. (https://www.healthline.com/health/hiv-aids/facts-statistics-infographic) 

 

CDC estimates indicate about 20 percent of the U.S. population – approximately one in five people in the U.S. – had an STI on any given day in 2018, and STIs acquired that year will cost the American healthcare system nearly $16 billion in healthcare costs alone. (https://www.cdc.gov/std/statistics/prevalence-2020-at-a-glance.htm) 

 

"STIs and their complications amount to about $16 billion annually in direct medical costs. HIV imposes the largest financial burden, costing $12.6 billion in direct medical costs, followed by HPV at $1.7 billion, chlamydia at $156.7 million, gonorrhea at $162.1 million, and syphilis at $39.9 million." (https://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/STI-brief.pdf) 

"The estimated discounted lifetime cost for persons who become HIV infected at age 35 is $326,500 (60% for antiretroviral medications, 15% for other medications, 25% non-drug costs). [Undiscounted "mean lifetime costs are $597,300 ($4,200)" "Discounted costs are highlighted throughout because they represent economic costs that take into account time preferences of individuals and society and the opportunity cost of funds"] The Lifetime Medical Cost Savings from Preventing HIV in the United States

Costs also can include those for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) [which was] at more than $1,700 for 30 tablets (https://mosaicscience.com/story/hiv-prep-truvada-prevention-sti-std-lgbtqi-gay-condom-pride/).

The cost for  PrEP medication is about  2,000 a month, and which "Most health insurance plans, including Medicaid, cover." (https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/stds-hiv-safer-sex/hiv-aids/prep) For any Medicaid insured HIV-negative adult 18 years of age or older patients, lab testing and prescription medication costs are 100% covered. (https://www.louisianahealthhub.org/teleprep/) 

More

[daniel1212]

They needed help on the homesteads.

Good thing we do not need help in voting. Spiritual decline=familial decline=national decline.

[SuperLuminal]

My wife (now just 4 weeks from 84) was the third youngest of 10 children...

Her father came from a 10-children family and her mother came from an 8-children family... Both lived to 99...
Both were wonderful human beings...

[jmacusa]

Actually having children in 1812 was fraught with peril. Kids died in childbirth, sometimes not long after or the mother died birthing the kid.

Heck in my hospital’s er last week a ‘’premie’’(premature) had to be airlifted out to a trauma center.

[cherry]

in my husbands family, back in North Dakota, the men would marry and have 11 kids, the wife would die from it all, and he would remarry and have another 10 kids....good ol German stock.....

I wish we'd have more big families..

[RedMonqey]

Same thing with my great great h grandfather. Married three times, had 14 kids. The last wife buried him, though.

[daniel1212]

My wife (now just 4 weeks from 84) was the third youngest of 10 children... Her father came from a 10-children family and her mother came from an 8-children family... Both lived to 99... Both were wonderful human beings.

And a neighbor of mine is the youngest of 18 children, his dad being from China, while his Costa Rican mom was one of 24, most all lived to their 90s. God is gracious.

[arthurus]

Had to spawn a lot of kids to ensure that they had two or three adult children.

[DownInFlames]

That’s right. Health care was poor and children had a high mortality rate. Measles was the number one killer of children along with scarlet fever. Hygiene wasn’t very good in 1812. The civil war showed this to the extreme.

[BobL]

“Actually having children in 1812 was fraught with peril. Kids died in childbirth, sometimes not long after or the mother died birthing the kid.”

...and then you had to feed them for years before they were of any use.

Mine was a sarcastic comment. The complaints about having kids these days are all ‘First World Problems’, whereas when having kids was really hard (as in 1812), people had them, and had many.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Large families back then because some would never live to reach adulthood, and then most of those would not make it to old age.

[daniel1212]

Large families back then because some would never live to reach adulthood, and then most of those would not make it to old age.

While true, there were large families back then mainly because "reproductive freedom" to prevent reproduction or murder the "production" was not promoted but reproved.

[jmacusa]

Yeah. It was a numbers game. Kids died so if you had 7 or 8 and lost two well, you know. Sons were desired over girls.

It was a rough life. I’m one of seven in mine. Five boys, two girls. Parents are long gone.

[BobL]

Sorry about your parents, but definitely nice to have siblings as we age!