11 things you didn't know about motherhood

During the Tudor Dynasty, swaddling was thought to prevent physical deformities. Today, mothers swaddle newborns to soothe them and help them sleep. (Get tips on safe swaddling.)

It was patented in 1886 by Josephine Cochran. She later founded a company to manufacture her invention, which today is known as KitchenAid.

The first TV dinner was developed by C.A. Swanson & Sons in 1953, and consisted of a Thanksgiving meal of turkey, cornbread dressing, frozen peas and sweet potatoes.

In the 18th century, a Russian woman reportedly gave birth to 69 children, 67 of whom survived infancy. They included 16 pairs of twins, 7 sets of triplets, and 4 sets of quadruplets.

The average age of mothers in the United States has increased by 3.6 years since 1970, when it was 21.4. However, that's still younger than in Japan and Switzerland, where the average age is 29.

According to the Department of Labor, secretaries and administrative assistants were the top occupation for women in 2010, accounting for 2,962,000 of jobs.

In 1995, 77 percent of married mothers with school-aged children worked. In 2011, only 68.7 percent of such women work.

The odds of a woman conceiving fraternal triplets is 1 in 8000 (an increase of almost 400 percent since 1980, due to the rise in fertility treatments). The odds of conceiving identical triplets is 1 in 200 million.

According to data from Happy Worker, a young child requires attention from his or her mother every four minutes while awake. And people with office jobs think that they have a lot of work!

In a Gallup survey, 86 percent of stay-at-home moms said they experienced happiness from their kids. Numbers were even higher for moms who work: 91 percent.