In Mary's personal letters....

[LincolnToddFan]

Thanks Eva, and Roger-

Mary saw her own mother die in childbirth as a little girl. Her step-mother Betsy was literally constantly giving birth, exhausting herself with one pregnancy after another.

When the smoke all cleared, Robert Smith Todd had fathered 13-14 children (including his first and second wives)!

Mary probably felt that four pregnancies were enough, especially after the last difficult experience. Pregnancy and childbirth in those days was not the relatively easy routine experience it is today. A woman was going on an excruciating and frightening journey from which she might not return. Frankly I don't know how ANY of them managed to survive in those days of substandard hygiene and lack of adequate pain relief.

Mary mentions in her letters that "instruments"(forceps?) were on hand for Tad's delivery but she doesn't say whether or not they were used.

Jean Baker believes that Mary practiced birth control-something new in those times for middle and upper class females. She nursed all her sons much longer than was normal as a way of suppressing ovulation(I remember reading a letter from one of AL's friends who expressed surprise that Mary was still nursing Willie when he was approaching two years old. Willie developed thrush as a result)

Perhaps they would have had more children otherwise...I get the feeling they both would have been thrilled to have had a little girl.

Eva...does A.C. Tripp really reference the fact that the Lincolns had "only" four children to support his theories?