Twins are the cases in which a single fetal animal gives birth to two fetuses at once in one pregnancy cycle. Twins are also divided into two categories: identical twins and fraternal twins, identical twins are one of the common ones we all have, and the two children born look almost exactly the same, because these two fetuses are developed from the same fertilized egg.
Fraternal twins are relatively rare compared to identical twins, fraternal twins are developed from different fertilized eggs, in this case the two children born in this case will generally look very different, better recognizable.
In modern times, it is a good thing that a family has twins, not to mention a son and a daughter, just enough to make up a "good" word. But in ancient times, especially among the dignitaries and nobles, they often did not like twins, thinking that twins were a bad thing? There is even a terrible phenomenon of giving birth to two and destroying one, so why was the ancients, which had always believed in many children and many blessings, so taboo on giving birth to twins?
Were twins uncommon in ancient times because they couldn't afford to raise them? The answer is no. Ordinary people let us not say for the time being, among the ancient officials and nobles, their living standards can be much better than the family conditions of ordinary people, but why are twins not common?
Ancients generally flattered the primogeniture system, for example, if the emperor died, then the person who inherited the throne must be the eldest son born of the empress; if the official marquis died, then their title was also to be inherited by the eldest son born to his wife; even if the people died, the family property was inherited by the eldest son.
The commoner family can produce relatively little entanglement of interests, such as the emperor and the high-ranking officials and nobles will often have titles and property to inherit, if the wife of the family at this time just gave birth to two twin boys, who should be the eldest son and inherit the family property? Who should bear the responsibility for the future family?
Some people may think that the earlier of the twins is the eldest son, but because the time of birth of the twins is too close, many times it is only a few minutes or so, and no one can guarantee whether the younger one will be unconvinced when they grow up, which will lead to a bigger dispute.
And the possibility of identical twins is greater, it is difficult to distinguish between two similar people, and the ancients were afraid of brothers killing each other and then living as another person.
If you ascended to the throne, and there was a brother who looked similar to you and was only two minutes younger than you, who stared at the throne every day, would you feel at ease? Many times, the brothers and sisters who once lived together will also kill each other for their own imperial path, and the brother who looks exactly like himself may become the biggest hidden danger after taking the throne.
So in order to avoid future family disputes, they often abandon a child at birth. Relatively speaking, if it is a dragon and phoenix fetus, the situation will be much better, after all, in ancient times, it was difficult for girls to inherit family property.
We can find very few twins that survived in the emperor's home, one of which is the Qi Wuming Empress Lou recorded in the Book of Northern Qi, who gave birth to a pair of dragon and phoenix fetuses, which was also retained because the girl did not have the right to inherit the family property.
But in fact, the phenomenon of fewer twins in ancient times is not only because one of them was "destroyed", the ancient people advocated early marriage and early childbearing, women generally married when they were still in the cardamom age, and then it is often said that they should open up branches and leaves for the family and have more children.
Under normal circumstances, a woman's ovaries can only release one mature egg per month, and then combine with sperm to form a complete fertilized egg, and then slowly carry out embryonic development.
Ancient women's life schedule is relatively simple, and often very young when they get married, so their body endocrine is normal, and they can perform normal ovulation once a month, which is why ancient people rarely gave birth to twins.
And modern is not more than ancient, modern people generally marry at least ten years later than ancient times, generally late marriage and late childbearing, even after the thirties of marriage is also a normal thing, and modern people life schedule disorders, coupled with the influence of various internal and external conditions, endocrine disorders are common things, at this time the body's gonadotropin will increase, and the concentration of estrogen in the follicle will also increase, which leads to the body is prone to ovulation abnormalities, so sometimes there will be a situation of two eggs at once a month, At this time, if both eggs can be successfully fertilized, twins will be conceived.
Through the above understanding, we can know that in the modern era of advanced science and technology, it is not easy to conceive a pair of twins, not to mention that they have to be born, because the birth risk of twins has always been higher than that of single children.
The ancient medical level is not developed enough, many ordinary people do not know how to prepare for pregnancy scientifically and correctly, nor do they know that they can improve the probability of having twins by interfering with hormone secretion, but simply want to rely on "luck" to win, which will naturally greatly reduce the chance of having twins.
And the risk of delivery in ancient times is also greater, they do not have a relatively sterile environment, there is no modern skilled caesarean section technology, the risk of childbirth is high, once there is a problem in the middle, it may fall into the situation of both mother and child death, just like the common difficult birth hemorrhage in TV series, it is difficult to ensure that the two children of the twins can survive, and therefore the relevant records will be relatively small.
This situation has also led to many ordinary people's families believing that the disaster that came from heaven is an ominous sign, so even if twins can survive, they often choose one to send to others' homes to feed, so that they can avoid disasters. If it is two boys, one of them will be sent, and if it is a man and a woman, the girl will be sent away, so it is rare to see a family with twins.
Speaking of which, we can't help but rejoice that we are people living in modern times, not only enjoying the protection of modern advanced scientific and medical technology but also more progressive ideas. Modern medical technology has developed rapidly, not only to have children much safer than in ancient times, but also to help many couples who cannot have children conceive through IVF.
But whether it is modern or ancient, whether it is a vaginal birth or a caesarean section, we can not question the greatness of the mother, people often say that the mother gives birth to a child is to walk on the ghost door, pain is secondary at this time, whether you can save your life is the main thing. Therefore, we must be more considerate of our mother, each of us is born of a mother who takes great risks, and we must cherish the world and love our mother even more.
References: Book of Northern Qi, History of the Ming Dynasty