# Being Pregnant in the 1950s



## ilvmylbug

Just a bit of trivia I found fascinating....and disturbing :coffee:


~ There weren't any at home pregnancy tests back in the 50s. In fact, if you were to be tested for pregnancy, a urine sample would be collected and sent to the lab. The urine would then be injected into a rabbit, and if the rabbit died then that would indicate a "positive" test. Thus comes the phrase "the rabbit done died".

~ Smoking and drinking were not discouraged during pregnancy. In fact, it was not uncommon for the doctor to offer his patient a cigarette while they discussed her pregnancy in his office.

~ All pregnant women were considered frail and prescribed a lot of bedrest during pregnancy. They were also instructed not to reach for things over their head, as this was believed to cause the umbilical cord to wrap around the baby's neck.

~ Sitting on cold cement was discouraged because it would cause hemorrhoids.

~ If you gained too much weight during pregnancy, you were then prescribed a diet pill, which were referred to as "black beauties". 

~ A previous miscarriage would put you at high risk for pregnancy and were given Thalidomide during pregnancy. In all actuality, this drug causes birth defects in children and often resulted in missing limbs.

~ It was considered very poor taste for women to attend funerals during pregnancy.

~ The words "pregnant" and "pregnancy" were not spoken in public, rather were replaced with "expecting", "with child" and "in the family way".

~ A woman stayed in the hospital for at least one week after giving birth.

~ If you were past your due date, your husband was advised to take you in car ride down a bumpy road, which was believed to induce labor.

~ After delivery, your husband and family weren't allowed anywhere near you or the baby until you both were cleaned up.

~ It was believed that women should not experience any pain during delivery and were often "knocked out" during the process with anesthetic.

~ In the hospital, the mother was only permitted to see the baby during bottle feedings (breastfeeding was not recommended).

~ Smoking during the hospital stay was not uncommon and women were provided with ash trays by their bedside.

~ Fathers and family could only see the baby at the hospital through a glass window in the nursery.

~ Due to the possibility of germs, no visitors to your house were allowed once you came home with the baby during the first few months.

~ The baby was not allowed to leave the house until it was baptized.



My how things have changed! :dohh:


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## SagixPrincess

haha wow! how weird!

~ If you were past your due date, your husband was advised to take you in car ride down a bumpy road, which was believed to induce labor.

im convinced this is a euphemism lolol x


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## Moti

How interesting - thanks for posting!


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## Housecat

Oh the poor bunnies :( 
It's amazing how things have changed though! 

"Black Beauties" though...What the heck!?


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## SagixPrincess

i agree poor bunnies how gross and cruel :( x


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## ilvmylbug

As far as I know, "black beauties" are slang for a pill that has the combination of Amphetamine (Speed) and Dextroamphetamine. They were not unlike Adderall.


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## katlin

ilvmylbug said:


> As far as I know, "black beauties" are slang for a pill that has the combination of Amphetamine (Speed) and Dextroamphetamine. They were not unlike Adderall.

actually you are correct in this thinking. Amphetamine was highly prescribed as a diet pills many years ago aswell as a weight loss supplement, it is now commonly found in adhd medications.


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## Cassie123

When my mum was pregnant with me in the 80's 

Her home pregnancy test took 2 hours to develop - I thought it was bad waiting 2 minutes!!

and 

The maternity ward had a smoking room.


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## ProudMommy26

wow, things have changed! Thanks for posting, very interesting read.


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## LoraLoo

Slightly O/T but this reminded me of a bOck In read a few months back -Takes of a Midwife whiCh was all about a young midwife and her patients in the 1950's- brill book :thumbup: And makes u realise how good we have it these days!! XX


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## milf2be

i recommend a book called call the midwife by jennifer worth, its about a midwife working in 1950s in poplar, east end. she tells stories about the women she looked after and i think its very interesting on how practice has changed!! the first chapter i found a bit hard going (she worked with nuns- and that put me off a bit because i wrongly thought it was going to end up being a religious book) but keep going with it because it is really interesting, i couldnt put it down!


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## ilvmylbug

Wonder if in 50 years they will think we were crazy for how we handled pregnancy??


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## katlin

in 50 years women wont carry babies they will be grown in artificial uterises in your bedroom lol


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## Housecat

ilvmylbug said:


> Wonder if in 50 years they will think we were crazy for how we handled pregnancy??

Most likely! I'm sure we'll all have been doing something that in 50 years is unthinkable! :dohh:

Good grief though, black beauties....wow!

Still can't get over the bunny thing. Is pregnant urine poisonous!? Well, obviously to bunnies it is :shrug:


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## xashleyx

Cassie123 said:


> When my mum was pregnant with me in the 80's
> 
> Her home pregnancy test took 2 hours to develop - I thought it was bad waiting 2 minutes!!
> 
> and
> 
> The maternity ward had a smoking room.

WOW 2 hours!!!! :o i would be tearing my hair out waiting that long


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## ChocolateKate

Fascinating! Thanks for posting that. My Grandma who had two children in the 50s said to me the other day that you didn't go to the doctor until you'd missed at least two periods. We just don't have the patience these days do we? Lol. I can't believe that in all this time of women giving birth we haven't come up with a less painful way of getting our little ones out! X


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## LoraLoo

milf2be said:


> i recommend a book called call the midwife by jennifer worth, its about a midwife working in 1950s in poplar, east end. she tells stories about the women she looked after and i think its very interesting on how practice has changed!! the first chapter i found a bit hard going (she worked with nuns- and that put me off a bit because i wrongly thought it was going to end up being a religious book) but keep going with it because it is really interesting, i couldnt put it down!

:haha: Just posted this too, its the best book 9 have read in a long time, and also very funny :thumbup:


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## PAgal

It sure is amazing how much times have changed. Every time I think of all the "don't's" (alcohol, cat litter, deli meat, soft cheeses, etc.etc.) that pregnant women are cautioned with today, I think of the old days and then relax a bit. 

I was born in '74 and it's amazing how much things changed even since then. Men were still not commonly allowed in the delivery room (my mom changed hospitals so dad could be in with her). She never had an u/s so even though they existed since the late 50's I don't think they were common practice. And I was 2 weeks late until they induced, which I think is unheard of now.


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## LoraLoo

PAgal said:


> It sure is amazing how much times have changed. Every time I think of all the "don't's" (alcohol, cat litter, deli meat, soft cheeses, etc.etc.) that pregnant women are cautioned with today, I think of the old days and then relax a bit.
> 
> I was born in '74 and it's amazing how much things changed even since then. Men were still not commonly allowed in the delivery room (my mom changed hospitals so dad could be in with her). She never had an u/s so even though they existed since the late 50's I don't think they were common practice. And I was 2 weeks late until they induced, which I think is unheard of now.

This is true about the scans, in the book Tales of a m/w a young unmarried had come over from Ireland, no care or nothing, rang m/w when she was in labour, midwife had to put the baby in a drawer (all by candlelight) and then out popped another baby....and another! Cant imagine the sort of shock Id be in!! xx


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## JosieM

Interesting post. Things were very different even when my mum was pregnant (1970's). Dads weren't present for the birth, mums stayed in hospital for 5 days, your baby was taken to a nursery at night so you got some sleep, and smoking amongst pregnant women was still common. Ultrasound apparently wasn't in use - they only discovered that my brother was breech when he was being born and mum said there was a huge panic. My friend's mum gave birth to her under a 'twilight sleep' - some form of sedation - she said she remembered nothing and afterwards just asked what did she have, a boy or girl!


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## magicbubble

the rabbit would die if it was a positive test??? is that serious??? it sounds more like a supersticious black magic witch thing from medi-evil times than a tried and tested scientific medical method lol :)


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## mummyx2

a very interesting read, thankyou! :)


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## ilvmylbug

magicbubble said:


> the rabbit would die if it was a positive test??? is that serious??? it sounds more like a supersticious black magic witch thing from medi-evil times than a tried and tested scientific medical method lol :)

No idea on the validity on the test! :haha:


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## PAgal

Wow, the sedation stories are pretty wild. So I guess that means they pulled the baby out with the forceps??


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## inperfected

The rabbit thing is correct... I believe it's to do with the Hcg in the urine.


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## mommy2beof2

Wow poor rabbits :nope: That's so sad! My mom and I was just talking about some of those the other day, about how we see some ladies pregnant and their smoking still and eating and doing things that they really shouldn't while being pregnant and my mom told me that back when my grandma had her and my aunts that that stuff wasn't a big deal like smoking and taking different medications, lead paint and ect. It's soo different how things have changed now and will keep changing.


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## darkNlovely

lol...


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## RJSS85

This is such a good thread. I love reading how times have changed! When I started my nurse training in 2003, the ward I worked on still had smoking rooms! It's crazy but I do remember a story my Nana has told me. When she was pregnant for the first in 1965, she had some problems with bleeding, and put her on bed rest with her legs elevated from about 9-35 weeks when they delivered the baby. When she spoke of it to a friend of mine who is a midwife, whatever the problem was, she shouldn't have had her legs elevated at all, because it would have caused a blood clot! She went on to have 5 more healthy pregnancies but it does make me think... WHAT! x

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## maybabydoll

Wow great thread! How times have changed! One thing I think is interesting is the amount of bedrest and time being nursed in hospital both pre and post birth. When I had a MC and had to sit around in A&E for 5 hours then was sent home on public transport, my 89 year grandma couldn't believe it, in her day you were taken straight to the ward, put into bedrest until the MC finished and nursed throughout! Even my 60 year old mum thought I would have been given Valium! 

I wonder if in 50 years people will get more or less nursing/rest? We will look back and think wow all those pregnant ladies who worked full time with morning sickness or had to go home straight after the birth, could we have benefited from more old fashioned nursing care/rest? x x


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## pinkpolkadot

Wow amazing thanks for posting this! I love 50s inspired fashion but boy am I glad I am not preggo back then!!!


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## createbeauty

I've been reading some books about pregnancy/midwives in the East End of London in the 1950s. So so so different. Really good books though!


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## lizzies29

milf2be said:


> i recommend a book called call the midwife by jennifer worth, its about a midwife working in 1950s in poplar, east end. she tells stories about the women she looked after and i think its very interesting on how practice has changed!! the first chapter i found a bit hard going (she worked with nuns- and that put me off a bit because i wrongly thought it was going to end up being a religious book) but keep going with it because it is really interesting, i couldnt put it down!


I just read this book the other week, it was so interesting i couldnt put it down until i was finished it lol xx


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## emyandpotato

Another random fact; if you had older children they'd be put in foster care for the week you were in hospital as the fathers weren't expected to cope with them alone. Foster care in the 50s was pretty much the child was put in a bed and ignored except for feeding and changing etc.


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## mushroom

ilvmylbug said:


> Just a bit of trivia I found fascinating....and disturbing :coffee:
> 
> 
> ~ There weren't any at home pregnancy tests back in the 50s. In fact, if you were to be tested for pregnancy, a urine sample would be collected and sent to the lab. The urine would then be injected into a rabbit, and if the rabbit died then that would indicate a "positive" test. Thus comes the phrase "the rabbit done died".

This isn't true. It is true that urine samples were injected into an animal (not a rabbit, think it was a guinea pig), but not to see if it died! If the urine of the guinea pig altered significantly, it was positive. Definitely something to do with levels- but the guinea pig was not in danger of dying.



> ~ A previous miscarriage would put you at high risk for pregnancy and were given Thalidomide during pregnancy. In all actuality, this drug causes birth defects in children and often resulted in missing limbs.

Nope, it was presecribed for morning sickness. And it worked for it too. It was earlier than he 1950's though I think, peaked in the 20's and 30's.

Certainly in Ireland, pain medication would not really have featured during delivery. The one where pregnant people were seen as frail would not be true for here either. Miscarriages and stillbirths were seen as a sad fact of life, women were told to get over it and try again. I don't think it would have merited any special treatment, no scans existed anyway. I am talking about deeply Catholic Ireland though back then, England could well have been different.

Definitely the points about smoking and drinking, fathers only seeing the baby through the nursery window, lonnnng bed rest and the other points are true. Don't think they definitively copped a link between drinking and pregnancy until the 70s and has only been widely known in the last 15 years or so. If anyone has seen the film The Snapper, shot in 1993, the pregnant woman in it binge drinks. They wouldn't have been told any different.


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## spacefem

I am so glad we're past that craziness!

My grandma said she loved holding me when I was hours old... I was the first newborn she'd ever held. But she'd had FIVE KIDS!


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## prmami25c

wooow! me and hubby thought this was very interesting!


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## zb5

mushroom said:


> ilvmylbug said:
> 
> 
> Just a bit of trivia I found fascinating....and disturbing :coffee:
> 
> 
> ~ There weren't any at home pregnancy tests back in the 50s. In fact, if you were to be tested for pregnancy, a urine sample would be collected and sent to the lab. The urine would then be injected into a rabbit, and if the rabbit died then that would indicate a "positive" test. Thus comes the phrase "the rabbit done died".
> 
> This isn't true. It is true that urine samples were injected into an animal (not a rabbit, think it was a guinea pig), but not to see if it died! If the urine of the guinea pig altered significantly, it was positive. Definitely something to do with levels- but the guinea pig was not in danger of dying.Click to expand...

There was a test that involved injecting a pregnant woman's urine into a rabbit, and then killing the rabbit to inspect its ovaries. If the woman was pregnant, the rabbit's ovaries would look different from all the HCG. The rabbit died either way in this test, but that's where the expression came from. I'm not sure how much they actually used this test method though. It is sad for the rabbits. :(

https://www.snopes.com/pregnant/rabbit.asp


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## createbeauty

milf2be said:


> i recommend a book called call the midwife by jennifer worth, its about a midwife working in 1950s in poplar, east end. she tells stories about the women she looked after and i think its very interesting on how practice has changed!! the first chapter i found a bit hard going (she worked with nuns- and that put me off a bit because i wrongly thought it was going to end up being a religious book) but keep going with it because it is really interesting, i couldnt put it down!

I read that book the other week. I also read the follow-on 'Shadows of the Workhouse' and am currently reading the last book, 'Farewell to the East End'. Very good reads!


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## Tatertot

PAgal said:


> It sure is amazing how much times have changed. Every time I think of all the "don't's" (alcohol, cat litter, deli meat, soft cheeses, etc.etc.) that pregnant women are cautioned with today, I think of the old days and then relax a bit.
> 
> I was born in '74 and it's amazing how much things changed even since then. Men were still not commonly allowed in the delivery room (my mom changed hospitals so dad could be in with her). She never had an u/s so even though they existed since the late 50's I don't think they were common practice. And I was 2 weeks late until they induced, which I think is unheard of now.

Completely random and unrelated, but I live in Johnstown! I'm about an hour and a half away from Pittsburgh!


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## anna_marie

My dad is a twin. And when my grandma was pregnant with twins she didn't even know. she told me that during labor they put her to sleep. And their bodies usually did the labor naturally as they were asleep. And when she woke up she asked my grandpa if they had a girl or a boy. And he said two boys. And she didn't believe him


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## Darlingdamsel

My grandmother had the same. She went into the hospital, was literally put to sleep the moment she laid down and awoke after my mother was born. 

Talk about missing all the good stuff!


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## nickyXjayno

mushroom said:


> ilvmylbug said:
> 
> 
> Just a bit of trivia I found fascinating....and disturbing :coffee:
> 
> Nope, it was presecribed for morning sickness. And it worked for it too. It was earlier than he 1950's though I think, peaked in the 20's and 30's.
> 
> Certainly in Ireland, pain medication would not really have featured during delivery. The one where pregnant people were seen as frail would not be true for here either. Miscarriages and stillbirths were seen as a sad fact of life, women were told to get over it and try again. I don't think it would have merited any special treatment, no scans existed anyway. I am talking about deeply Catholic Ireland though back then, England could well have been different.
> 
> Definitely the points about smoking and drinking, fathers only seeing the baby through the nursery window, lonnnng bed rest and the other points are true. Don't think they definitively copped a link between drinking and pregnancy until the 70s and has only been widely known in the last 15 years or so. If anyone has seen the film The Snapper, shot in 1993, the pregnant woman in it binge drinks. They wouldn't have been told any different.
> 
> 
> 
> Actually that drug was prescribed by 50's to 60's and was a sort of sedative to help cope with morning sickness.
> 
> Thalidomide was sold in a number of countries across the world from 1957 until 1961 when it was withdrawn from the market after being found to be a cause of birth defects in what has been called "one of the biggest medical tragedies of modern times".[4]Click to expand...


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## beccad

My granny said she was put to sleep and they woke her up because the baby's head was coming out and she was lying awkwardly and the midwives couldn't see properly :haha: She said she never had any pain with it either. I don't know if this is because of the medication or just because she's one of those rare people that just feels a lot of pressure?


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## ttc bubby no2

The whole twilight sleep thing is pretty disgusting. The women could feel the pain but would forget it after it happened. They would thrash around on the bed so were restrained on the bed. They used lambs wool on the restraints so bruises wouldn't show up otherwise the husbands would have asked questions. 

Even 30 years ago things were quite different to now. When my mum had me (79) they used to routinely give enemas and shave them so everything was 'clean' for the birth. When she got to hospital with me they wanted to do it but she told them it was too late and I was born about 20 minutes later :)


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## Wolfie

SagixPrincess said:


> haha wow! how weird!
> 
> ~ If you were past your due date, your husband was advised to take you in car ride down a bumpy road, which was believed to induce labor.
> 
> im convinced this is a euphemism lolol x

lol:haha:


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## amysra

LOVING this thread! So interesting x


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## MrsMalowey

nickyXjayno said:


> mushroom said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ilvmylbug said:
> 
> 
> Just a bit of trivia I found fascinating....and disturbing :coffee:
> 
> Nope, it was presecribed for morning sickness. And it worked for it too. It was earlier than he 1950's though I think, peaked in the 20's and 30's.
> 
> Certainly in Ireland, pain medication would not really have featured during delivery. The one where pregnant people were seen as frail would not be true for here either. Miscarriages and stillbirths were seen as a sad fact of life, women were told to get over it and try again. I don't think it would have merited any special treatment, no scans existed anyway. I am talking about deeply Catholic Ireland though back then, England could well have been different.
> 
> Definitely the points about smoking and drinking, fathers only seeing the baby through the nursery window, lonnnng bed rest and the other points are true. Don't think they definitively copped a link between drinking and pregnancy until the 70s and has only been widely known in the last 15 years or so. If anyone has seen the film The Snapper, shot in 1993, the pregnant woman in it binge drinks. They wouldn't have been told any different.
> 
> 
> 
> Actually that drug was prescribed by 50's to 60's and was a sort of sedative to help cope with morning sickness.
> 
> Thalidomide was sold in a number of countries across the world from 1957 until 1961 when it was withdrawn from the market after being found to be a cause of birth defects in what has been called "one of the biggest medical tragedies of modern times".[4]Click to expand...
> 
> Yeh my nan was offered this with her first and he's about 50 now. Her mother wouldn't let her have it saying she would have to put up with the morning sickness like she did! She is soooo greatful now though!!Click to expand...


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## ljo1984

ive heard of the dont lift your arms abouve your had thing before ha ha!! 
as for discouraging BF my grandma was told to BF and the milk comes away as blood (down there!) she didnt realise until i told her las year that you still bleed regardless of how you feed your baby. i was BF imogen and that how we got on the subject! quite scary!

one to add to the list. they used to tell new mums to lay on their belly to flatten their baby stomachs! ha ha ha!! i wish.


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## irish_cob

Yeah, it's not true about the rabbit dying because of the test subject being pregnant. All the rabbits were sacrificed and their ovaries examined because as we all know, hCG is the hormone which rises when you're pregnant, and higher levels of hCG cause changes to the ovaries of the rabbit, and it's those changes that the test was looking for.

I'm not sure I believe all the other bits 100% either, call me a skeptic but I'd like some facts. Yes people were given thalidomide but it was a morning sickness drug, and yes it caused huge waves in medicine and was partly responsible for the comprehensive drug screening and registration processes we have today. Yes I'm sure mothers drank and smoke, that's quite believeable. I'm not sure about the wrapping in cotton wool though. Times were generally harder back then, in the post-war recovery years. I'm sure the stiff upper lip attitude prevailed. I don't think counselling for miscarriage or anything like that existed. I think women were just expected to get on with it, whether they were pregnant or if they experienced a miscarriage. I certainly can't imagine any woman being wrapped in cotton wool. And certainly risk assessments and health and safety procedures weren't even imagined in the 50s!


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## wee lor

Interesting read..............

Can't imagine being pregnant with no scans but my mum told me that when she was pregnant with my sister and me (70's) she was given x rays :o


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## geordiemoo

ljo1984 said:


> ive heard of the dont lift your arms abouve your had thing before ha ha!!
> as for discouraging BF my grandma was told to BF and the milk comes away as blood (down there!) she didnt realise until i told her las year that you still bleed regardless of how you feed your baby. i was BF imogen and that how we got on the subject! quite scary!
> 
> one to add to the list. they used to tell new mums to lay on their belly to flatten their baby stomachs! ha ha ha!! i wish.

My Nanna told me that as well about lying on your stomach. Love this thread.


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## whit.

Want to know what's messed up? I still complain to my mom about how unhealthy it was for me. They allowed her to smoke, in the hospital, before and after giving birth to me. That was 1988!!! Not even that long ago! So the majority of my hospital pictures you can see cigarettes in the picture, or she's smoking. :dohh:


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## Docility

Some of those were pretty disturbing. :wacko: And some of them were just plain funny. :haha: 

Thanks for sharing! :flower:


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## Waiting2Grow

ChocolateKate said:


> Fascinating! Thanks for posting that. My Grandma who had two children in the 50s said to me the other day that you didn't go to the doctor until you'd missed at least two periods. We just don't have the patience these days do we? Lol. I can't believe that in all this time of women giving birth we haven't come up with a less painful way of getting our little ones out! X


We have, epidurals!


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## Loui1001

I love this thread!!! And definitely think the story of the husband taking his wife for a bumpy ride is code for something!

My sister is 32, I'm 30 and my brother is 27 and my mum didn't have an ultrasound with any of us - mad when you think that this was in the 70's and 80's


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## allaboard

I'm 33 and my Mum has an ultrasound of me - that's the late 70s! A friend of hers was training up and Mum (i.e. me!) was a guinea pig!

My nan gave up smoking during all her pregnancies as she thought at the time it couldn't be healthier than fresh air, which seems to be unusual thinking back then. She also breastfed her kids, again, unusual. As did my Mum with me and my brother - actually she was the only mum on the ward breastfeeding.


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