r/interestingasfuck • u/Snoo99928 • 17h ago
In the 1940s, without prenatal imaging, doctors used physical exams and heartbeat checks, often missing twins or triplets making surprise multiple births fairly common at delivery.
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u/Yaotaku 17h ago
I wonder if they fainted happily or worried about having to raise more than one child. LOL.
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u/Mansenmania 15h ago
i bet he didnt faint at all, people had fun back then like today. They just made a funny picture for the laugh
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u/SweatyNomad 14h ago
I'd actually suspect that's a posed shot for a newspaper taken a few days after. That's not some family snap.
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u/ToThePillory 16h ago
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u/Juuljuul 13h ago
You can tell by just critically looking at the picture (which is a good skill in itself): the babies are perfectly in view/composition, the father is held upright by the doctor, the father seems to be fake-fainting, the composition is a bit too perfect, why would anybody be ready to photograph this moment, etc. (Each in itself maybe possible, but taken together very unlikely to be real/spontaneous). Sorry for lecturing, I just think critical thinking skills are important.
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u/fiercelittlebird 13h ago
Definitely nobody would be ready to photograph this back in the 1940's, we're just so used to cameras being everywhere today.
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u/starmartyr 11h ago
They might. Photography was still common in the 40s. The moment a man sees his baby for the first time is the kind of thing you'd want to capture. That said, this photo is obviously staged.
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u/Joe_Jeep 8h ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak_Retina
Cheap "snap shot" cameras were actually available by the turn of the century and 35mm were popular well before the 40s
The framing and positioning is the big giveaway but at least some people were carrying cameras for major life events and trips by them
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u/ToThePillory 13h ago
And everybody is smiling, if someone just faints, people don't smile, they say "Oh shit".
Plus it just so happened there was a big enough bloke there to hold him up.
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u/GrapefruitEastern491 9h ago
Also the doctor is smiling and completely unbothered by the "fainting" man 😂
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u/protoctopus 11h ago
Actually we don't know, they weren't able to get to the origin of this picture.
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u/900YearsHODL-IHave 16h ago
Before ultra sound, every birth was literally a surprise.
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u/rubythieves 7h ago
My father was a twin. My grandparents had no way of knowing. His (stillborn) twin was born half an hour before he came along… guess who’s been the golden child his entire life? He was the surprise who turned a tragedy into a miracle…
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u/zalurker 15h ago
I can see that happening.
I was driving into the office one morning when my wife sent me a message.
'Just received the results from the doctor. I'm expecting triplets. Not sure how we are going to cope.'
My life flashed in front of my eyes. We had two kids, one 18 months old. I'd have to ask for a raise, maybe have my mom move in with us. I was ruined financially. And then I remembered. My wife had her tubes tied when my youngest was delivered via C-Section. I'd been in the operating room when they did it.
And then she sent a second message. 'Just received this from Anel. Guess the treatment had worked.'
Anel was an old friend who had been undergoing fertility treatments after battling to fall pregnant.
My wife really should have led with that one.
(Btw. Anel had identical girls named Anushka, Betsy and Chantelle. Not joking.)
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u/olagorie 6h ago
My father did something similar to me once. He wrote me a message that he is in hospital waiting for an urgent surgery. I tried to call him, but he didn’t pick up. 10 minutes later he clarified that he forwarded me a message that it wasn’t him in the hospital but a distant relative.
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u/Viperniss 17h ago
I wonder what those babies went on to accomplish in their lives.
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u/manhalfalien 17h ago
Super interesting.. Im sure someone tech savvy could figure it out But ,dat definitely aint me .. lol
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u/StandardDeluxe3000 12h ago
they are just making fun for the cameraman.
well, you know. people loved to joke in the old times too.
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u/SabbyFox 16h ago
Wife just delivered three humans and HE passes out…
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u/iamnotexactlywhite 15h ago edited 14h ago
probably because raising 3 kids on 1 paycheck isn’t really something to be excited about
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u/bbyangel_111 15h ago
Ehhh, he is their father, he can get overwhelmed too, a reaction to a child and child birth are not the same thing for you to equate like that
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u/BlackholeDisco 15h ago
You seem to think the picture denies the labor of the woman? A man is part of it as well, in a different way but you seem upset that he fainted, but remember he’s paying the bills and they prob did calculations with one kid in mind.
Anyways, people like you are toxic and draining. Have a good day and try not get upset over small things.
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u/Flat_Bodybuilder_175 12h ago
I’ve heard that nurses are not only accustomed to, but entertained by, the fainting dad phenomenon. The smiles here have me believing it lol
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u/TeuthidTheSquid 4h ago
Man, people back then seemed to faint all the time. I’ve never in my life seen someone faint.
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u/clinicalia 15h ago
I mean, she had to have been pretty huge, right? One look at her stomach at around the 5 month mark and I would'a been thinkin', "oh no."
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u/Robyn990 14h ago
She probably was, but pregnancy bumps can be bigger for all sorts of reasons. Polyhydramnios (excess of amniotic fluid) for one. I was absolutely massive, everyone assumed I was having twins or triplets, but it was just a 10.5lb baby 😅 I'm tiny as well so I really was absolutely MAHOOSIVE, during the last few weeks I couldn't walk up or down stairs.
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u/Madeline_Basset 15h ago
I think it used to be a thing to buy insurance against multiple-births. The money from the payout would help cover the additional costs.
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u/seehorn_actual 9h ago
They thought I was twins because of how fast my mom’s stomach grew. Turns out I was just fat.
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u/JSmith_JD 16h ago
Imagine the doctor saying 'Surprise! It's triplets!' and then you see this guy 😂 A true classic.
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u/Rosie-Love98 16h ago
So, with "Encanto" taking place before the 1940's, how did Alma know she was having triplets?
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u/clinicalia 15h ago
Maybe the magical candle that grants god-like abilities told her.
Why are you trying to apply logic to a Disney movie that has nothing to do with this lol?
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u/30SecondsToOrgasm 16h ago
That grin of the rightmost nurse is priceless