Birth & feeding 50 years ago

I was speaking to a lady in her 70s today (strange for me because i have no grandparents so i found her fascinating).... :)

she was telling me that when she gave birth to her first baby about 50 years ago, that she was not allowed to get up out of bed until 10 days after the birth, you were not allowed to shower even until 10 days later!!! i was so shocked. And then she couldn't even go home until 14 days after.

Once she got home, she said she had trouble breastfeeding, and that she had to follow a schedule, which was 6am, 10am, etc and you had to follow it to the dot. (4 hourly). She said she ended up going to the bottle.

She was surprised when i said with my first i left hospital within 24 hours, and with my second was pretty much kicked out after 12 hours! (they needed my room for someone else). I also showered right after both births - i could not imagine going without a shower.

How things have changed eh? i wonder if my grandkids will look at me in 50 years and how different it might be then? Probably be so techy that they'll have robots carrying and giving birth or something LOL.

14 days...ewwwwww.....i was complaining after 1 hour of wanting a shower.

Really childbirth and the after 'bits' has come along way!

We've come a long way, baby. Just after I left hospital after I had DD, we went grocery shopping. It was the morning so there were lots of old ladies around and of course, seeing us with a newborn, everyone decided to say hello and have a gossip lol. We must've been there for hours! A lot of the women were really amazed that I was up and walking around, and I was thinking, "Why wouldn't I be?"

Even more recently, things are better now than they were some decades back. My mother had a terrible birth with me. She went into labour on Friday night, was vomiting etc. and the hospital told her to go home. She came back on Saturday I think where they induced her (really, she was already in labour but her contractions were too far apart). She had no pain relief, when she asked for it they said it was too late (I have no idea if it was or not). After a long, terrible labour, the Dr decided that I needed to come out so she gave my mum an episiotomy WITHOUT PAIN RELIEF, and removed me with the vaccuum. At some point while this was happening, the Dr fell silent and was aparently terrified (at least that's what her expression said). I don't know exactly what happened but from what my mum has said, my life was in danger.
As it happens, my mother had extensive internal scarring due to previous surgery and EVERY SINGLE OTHER DR had said she would need to have a caesarian. This Dr denied her that and I nearly died because of it. My mother and I both have physical problems because of this.
My poor mum! I still can't believe what she went through just to bring me into this world.

We've gone backwards.

My grandmother was in a birth centre with her first (my dad) for AT LEAST ten days. She could shower or bathe as she wished, was encouraged to feed (fairly sure it wasn't a strict routine for her - Dad was BFed fully), they helped show Grandma how to look after a baby, change nappys, dress, clean, feed... AS WELL AS doing all the "housework" things such as making meals, washing, taking the baby for a bit so Grandma could rest.

Grandma wasn't allowed out of bed - as in she wasn't allowed to do anything that wasn't looking after herself and my dad. She loved it. She was shocked not only how early I was released (then re-admitted) but by the way the hospital treated me in the post-partum period.

In future years? My son and his wife will be welcome at my house (I'm talking birth and post-partum here, not forever!). My DiL will be waited on hand-and-foot for at least two weeks in the post partum period - she can join in as and when she is ready to. Getting back into the swing of things should be a slow recovery, not a "here's your baby, now get on with it." I'll let the new parents and the baby have LOTS of time on their own together - but will be happy to help when asked! If I have another child, if that child is a girl, then I'll do the same for her. And my grandchildren.

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We've gone backwards.

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I think it depends on how you look at it. After the medicalization of child birth, the pendulum has started to swing the other and we're getting back to a more natural approach. Though considering that's how birth originally was before modern medicine, I guess that's going backwards as well anyway! Ignoring that fact though, I think we're taking steps in the right direction having midwife-lead care etc. I agree though that women are expected to recover too quickly. In non-westernized countries, women experience exactly what your grandmother did; they're left to bond with their babies and other people take care of the household stuff. I suppose that's one of the drawbacks to living in a capitalist society - women are expected to get on with it, and then get on with work soon after too. But that's a whole different story!

I think it's a symptom of modernity actually. In the olden days women could be expected to be bossed about and dictated to, MY grandmother (her births are on here) was PHYSICALLY TIED to the bed in lithotomy position for hours after one of her births as a "punishment" from the nurses for vomiting on them when she was given ether for pain relief during stitching, her choices and experience were dreadful. Nowadays women have "rights" and are theoretically not told what to do. But that's it, it's theoretical.

Because NOW, we have the facade of "choice" which means when the medico's mess things up it is the WOMAN who bears the blame. Because if they tell you your baby is gigantic and you must have a section and it turns out it's only 6lbs, it's YOU who is accused in the shops by nosy strangers of "taking the easy way out". The implication of all this so-called choice is that if it goes wrong it's because somewhere along the way you made the wrong choice. There seems to be so little talk of the altered states of mind of pregnancy and labour, a woman who "chooses" an unfashionable birth option (which depends on who is criticising you at any given moment) you can face reactions that make it seem that labour is nothing, and just because you're in labour you can STILL make the "right" decisions. Labour is a medical event, not to be discussed, and to be dismissed as a factor in any decision you made during your birth.

It's the same with all of the getting up and about and doing right after birth. After my homebirth i stayed in bed for 7 days. No, i didn't "need" to physically, but i'd just had a baby, and i was enjoying her. I LOVED lying on the bed, BFing, chatting to rello's on the phone, recieving guests, snoozing... I can remember my midwives wanting to know why i hadn't gone to the shops! The RIGHT to be up and about has become the EXPECTATION that one WILL be up and about. "You may" becomes "you MUST" all too quickly.

To me acting as though nothing is different and everyone especially mum can and should go on as before is probably MORE damaging than overdoing the "you rest my poor darling" style of the olden days. Perhaps if everyone took the transition to motherhood more seriously and treated new mums accordingly we would see less PND in our society.

Bx

Hi mummaB, that was a very interesting story,I love to listen to older people`s stories from years ago,It`s amazing what some ladies have been through,I?m happy we have lots of choices about birthing these days.

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We've come a long way, baby. Just after I left hospital after I had DD, we went grocery shopping. It was the morning so there were lots of old ladies around and of course, seeing us with a newborn, everyone decided to say hello and have a gossip lol. We must've been there for hours! A lot of the women were really amazed that I was up and walking around, and I was thinking, "Why wouldn't I be?

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I had that happen when DD1 was born..i went grocery shopping and when asked 'Oh how old is your baby'...and i replied with '48 hours' so many were shocked! No point staying home...they have to get out and about and hiding them from the world.

I'm so glad things have changed. Five days in hospital with a sick bub were too much for me - I could not have handled longer. I just can't imagine not being able to shower after birth - I had blood absolutely everywhere. I will never forget how wonderful the shower was while I was still in the labour room.

My mums GF was so delighted hearing of my birth experiences. She tells me women were given cigarettes in the labour ward!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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 :rolleyes: ) and condensed milk etc. It's fascinating yet scary at the same time to read.

I remember my grandmother telling me that after she had my dad, over 50 years ago, she was told to put him on solids at 2 months of age, and feed him porridge. And the whole feeding schedule thing - 6, 10, 2, 6...my MIL told me they were still encouraging that in the late 70s, early 80s when she had her kids. In fact, she encouraged me to do the same - I even had a child health nurse tell me to stick to the 4 hourly thing when I had Harry. Apparently both her and MIL were of the opinion that because he was formula fed he had to be scheduled. So if he was hungry before the 4 hours was up I was supposed to just feed him water! Yeah right. MIL even suggested putting farex in his bottle to help "fill him up" because that's what they did in her day.

Birthing in hospitals really took off in Australia after WW2, when hospitals started becoming much larger and also much cleaner - previous to this time, hospitals were basically seen as places for the poor and destitute to go to die. The wealthy were treated by private nurses in their own homes. But this all changed and hospitals became the places to go for treatment and care, and to have babies. Thus the "medicalisation" of birth.

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We've come a long way, baby. Just after I left hospital after I had DD, we went grocery shopping. what she went through just to bring

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lol...me too. 48 hours it was for us and that's only because we weren't allowed to leave the day before cos Oskar's temp wasn't stable. Well, mine was more a case of seriously wanting a Gloria Jean's coffee. Not to mention how much fun it is to have people fully stare and wonder how old your little bundle is...lol.

Well it was similar for my mum when I was born just over 30 years ago.
She had to stay in hospital for 2 weeks - thats what you did, and I dont think they were suppose to get up for a number of days either. And they had a very strict feeding schedule and topped up the babies with formula too without asking parents consent.
The woman all shared a large ward too, no sharing with one other or private room. Can you imagine what that would be like for 2 weeks! Especially at night :doh:

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I think it depends on how you look at it. After the medicalization of child birth, the pendulum has started to swing the other and we're getting back to a more natural approach. Though considering that's how birth originally was before modern medicine, I guess that's going backwards as well anyway! Ignoring that fact though, I think we're taking steps in the right direction having midwife-lead care etc. I agree though that women are expected to recover too quickly. In non-westernized countries, women experience exactly what your grandmother did; they're left to bond with their babies and other people take care of the household stuff. I suppose that's one of the drawbacks to living in a capitalist society - women are expected to get on with it, and then get on with work soon after too. But that's a whole different story!

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yeah i think we're getting back on track, having women as birth support was traditional pre-medicalisation. I had only my husband and a midwife at each birth - it was my wish no men be present.

also regarding the episiotomy - i didn't get any pain relief with mine! are you supposed to???? she just grabbed the scissors and cut it - i hardly felt it though, i was in more pain than a little snip.

My grandmother had only just arrived in australia a few months before the birth of her 1st child and spoke only a little english. so her prenatal care was somewhat disjointed. she tells me that when she went into labour she had no idea of what was going on and thought that the contractions were a bad sign! She didnt realise that they were working to help the baby out, so she said by the time she started pushing she was hysterical and no-one thought to comfort her. she has told me that it traumatised her so much that each birth after that was difficult and scary. she is amazed at how much knowledge women have the chance of gathering for their birth and post-partum experience. (she was sent home with the baby and not told ANYTHIING on what to do or how to feed etc).

My MIL told me that when her mum had her children (early 1950's), she was knocked out just as the baby was about to arrive (ether, I think?) with her first two, and with her third and last baby, she was awake (because bubs arrived too quickly for the doctors).

My MIL when she had her first in 1973, was flat on her back, legs in stirrups and had an espitimony because the doctor was running late for a golf game - they whisked her baby away before she could cuddle him. She said that she lifted her torso up, saw a set of b@lls, thought to herself "oh its a boy" and then the baby was whisked off.

Really glad things have changed... REALLY GLAD!!

50 yrs ago things were very bad.

If you want good birthing methods you need to go back at least 100 maybe more. It would just be nice if you we could use our knowledge of medicine and the traditional birthing methods to provide a healthy safe way for us all to birth babies, rather than the current model which is pretty much one vs the other.

This is slightly off-topic, but I have a copy of "Everywoman" that my mother had when she was an older teen (She's now early 50s) and I love reading it to see the contrast. The author asserts that if women gain more than the recommended amount during their preg, it will be impossible for them to lose the weight and their husbands will be furious and that it's fine to smoke 11 cigarettes or less a day while preg ("But recent studies have shown smoking to be cancerous anyway so pregnancy may the perfect time to just quite entirely"). Lol!

MummaB - I thought that the standard procedure was the numb the area with a needle and then perform the episiotomy? I could be wrong though.

Unfortunately Neenee the standard procedure for episiotomy is to cut without anaesthetic. It is supposed to be done at the height of a contraction so that the skin is stretched tight and thus it won't hurt (it still hurts many women). Sheila Kitzinger describes episiotomy as "the only surgical procedure routinely carried out on adults without consent or anaesthetic".

Bx

WOW that's crazy! I had no idea! I honestly thought that an anaesthetic was administered via injection! Or perhaps that was just at the birthing centre I attented?

P.S. Sheila Kitzinger is fantastic. I should've paid more attention to what I read of hers before I gave birth!

It depends on the reason for the episiotomy hun. If it's because bubs is slipping back rather than crowning the do it at the height of a contraction while the head is bulging forward and the skin is stretched tight, ditto the episiotomy done to prevent a tear. But if you have to have one due to needing forceps the head isn't usually on the perineum, so they will numb you first if they have time. I know one women who had the all-too-normal failure-to-progress/augmentation/foetal distress and they wanted to section her, saying her son was obviously too big to come down, and she refused, saying she wanted to delivery vaginally, and the ob said, ok, well then i need to use forceps. He got them out and then said "because baby is so distressed, i need to make a small cut to get him out faster, there's no time for an injection, this might sting a little" and then cut a mediolateral episiotomy so deep she had to have her left glute stitched by another surgeon before the Ob could repair her pelvic floor. She said it was agony, far worse than the labour or birth, and she has PTSD. Her son was under 6lbs.

So basically it comes down to how much time you have, the reason for the episiotomy, and the compassion (or lack thereof) of the care-provider whether they numb you or not. I would imagine in the birth centre there are very few episiotomies, and those which are done are done carefully and compassionately, which is possibly why they use anaesthetic.

Bx

My grandmother gave birth to 5 babies she said he best labour was my mothers which was a homebirth attended by 2 midwives who arrived on their bicycles. She was a bit concerned when the younger , an irish catholic girl knelt at the side of the bed and said a prayer for he before she delivered my mum. The prayer seemed to work becuase everything went well. This was 52 years ago in England. Interestingly my mum is the only baby she breastfed. My grandmother then moved to new Zealand and had hospital births. Her first birth she had no prenatal education and when in labour asked a midwife how the baby was going to come out, the midwife said 'the same way it went in'. She waqs only 16 at the time.

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Her first birth she had no prenatal education and when in labour asked a midwife how the baby was going to come out, the midwife said 'the same way it went in'.

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This reminds me of a story my grandmother told me when she was alive. Grandma already had three children at this point and a neighbour - a first-time mum-to-be - was visiting (too many hyphens there? Anyway...).

"I'm very careful when washing around my belly button," this woman told Grandma.

"Why?" asked Grandma, a bit confused.

"I don't want to press it and it opens up and the baby comes out."

See! I knew there was a reason for the linea nigra - the opening for the little door whereby the baby flies out! I don't know what this woman did when poor Grandma put her right, must have been a shock to be 7-8m pg and find out how your baby comes out.