Niddah 26: The Placenta and Ritual Impurity

To begin, we are reminded that when a woman gives birth she is tum'at leida, ritually impure through childbirth (Vayikra 12:1-5).  If she bears a boy, she is ritually impure for seven days; if she has a girl she is ritually impure for 14 days.  If she has a boy, any vaginal bleeding does not render her impure for 33 days.  If she has a girl, any vaginal bleeding does not refer her ritually impure for 66 days.  These laws apply to women who have miscarriages or babies who are stillborn.  

Today's Mishna teaches about the placenta.  It states that "if there is an afterbirth in the house, the house is ritually impure - not because the status of an afterbirth is that of an offspring, but because there is no afterbirth without an offspring".  The afterbirth demonstrates that there was a birth and thus tum'at leida apply.  We do not know whether the child was a girl or a boy and so both sets of laws are followed regarding ritual purity.

Rav teaches in the Gemara that

• Rav Yehuda quotes Rav teaching that if the placenta is born within three days after giving birth, it is considered to be part of the birthing process of that infant.  After that time, the placenta indicates a second birth, and the woman will have to follow the laws of one who gives birth to a placenta
• Rav teaches that two children in one pregnancy are always born immediately one after another.

How could Rav make both of these seemingly contradictory statements?  Rabbis discuss even three children in one birth and the delayed birth of twins or triplets.  The rabbis considered a baby who is born even a month after another.  The rabbis ask about pregnancies that happen concurrently, which we understand can happen under extremely rare circumstances.  Steinsaltz notes that many of these cases, one of the infants is absorbed by the other.