Women's History Month: Maternal Ancestors

Over on Olive Tree Genealogy blog there's a meme for Women's History Month

The second prompt is: Make a list of your direct line maternal ancestors beginning with your mother. So you will list your mom, her mom, her mom's mom and so on, back as far as you can. Now figure out how many children each female ancestor had. Did the females in your direct maternal line tend to have the same numbers of children each generation? Did they have more? Less? Were they prolific or are there few children born to each woman? Is there a pattern emerging?

Here's my story:

My mother: 3 kids, 2 boys and 1 girl
My grandmother Massey: 2 kids (twin boys)
My grandmother Conn: 4 kids - 2 boys, 2 girls
My great grandmother Massey: 9 children, 5 boys + 4 girls

My great grandmother DeMeulenaere: 6 children, 2 boys + 4 girls

My great grandmother Holden: 6 children, 2 boys + 4 girls

My great grandmother Elgie: 5 children, 1 boy + 4 girls

Of the total of 35 children, there were 16 boys and 19 girls so girls outweighed boys in my female ancestors. The numbers of children declined with each generation - better birth control?