Being Pregnant in the 1950s

[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

 

[mummyx2]

a very interesting read, thankyou!

 

[ilvmylbug]

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!

 

[PAgal]

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

 

[inperfected]

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

 

[mommy2beof2]

Wow poor rabbits 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.

 

[darkNlovely]

lol...

 

[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

 

[pinkpolkadot]

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

 

[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!

 

[lizzies29]

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

 

[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.

 

[mushroom]

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


~ 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.

 

[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!

 

[prmami25c]

wooow! me and hubby thought this was very interesting!

 

[zb5]

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


~ 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.

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

 

[createbeauty]

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!

 

[Tatertot]

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!

 

[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