I totally get the not showering thing - not my cup of tea though because I always sweated so much in birth I would have started to pong after a while LOL - but for others its a way to encourage BF by letting your baby smell your pheremones and washing them off and masking them with soaps and deodorants confuses the senses kwim? (not that there is anything wrong with having a shower if you want it - that's just the reason behind not showering).

I suppose *back then* birth was just becoming the industry that it is now - 50years + ago women would still have been having midwife attended births at home and no one would have blinked an eye. Birth in a hospital was the realm of the wealthy. I imagine it wouldnt have been an option for a lot of women but then health care would have started getting cheaper and the propaganda would have started when the "professionals" realised what big business it could become (like the Eddy Groves' of health care )

Although there is a hospital near here that still does classical c/s and keeps Mum in bed for two days afterwards, I was surprised when I heard that actually, I didn't think that classical c/s were still done in a routine section, let alone keeping them in bed for two days.

But so much was different back then anyway. I have two of DH's Grandmothers recipe books so they would be about 75 years old as they were given to her as engagement presents and they have information on infant feeding and it's all to a VERY strict schedule, and they suggest supplementary feeding at a few weeks (oh I wonder why they would need supplementing ) and condensed milk etc. It's fascinating yet scary at the same time to read.