the olden days

[shopgirl771]

just thought id share this as i found it quite surprising.
we went to visit my OHs gran (85) the other weekend and he mentioned to her our plans to HB.
she didnt seem to have an opinion much either way but the following day when we were saying our goodbyes she worriedly said "who will look after you if your having a home birth?". i didnt understand what she was meaning and must have looked at her abit blankly cos she went on to say in her day they spent two weeks in hospital after giving birth.
i really had to try hard not to laugh at this point but explained that these days if its not ur first baby and mother and baby are well they boot u out of hospital after 6 hrs anyway.

wow how things change hey!

 

[ZoeZo]

Two weeks! While in one way maybe it's nice to have a couple of weeks to 'recover' but I couldn't think of anything worse!

 

[aliss]

My (Canadian) grandmother said the same, she expected me to stay in hospital for 1-2 weeks minimum. My Hungarian grandmother laughed and said she was out working in the fields the next day after giving birth in her room for all 13 babies.

Amazing the differences.

 

[Ju_bubbs]

When my mum had me, she was 'made' to stay in hospital and wasn't allowed out of bed for 10 days after birth!!! I'm only 28, so wasn't even THAT long ago.. was a perfectly 'normal' straight forward pregnancy and delivery, too!

 

[shopgirl771]

Me neither Zoe. I have a weird hospital food/eating in hospital kind of fear/phobia so two weeks and I'd starve to death
Plus I think men now take a much more hands on role when baby first arrives with paternity leave and all.

 

[flubdub]

My mum is 49 and was in hospital for 10 days when she had me. I think with a section it was 3 weeks?

 

[LittleOnes]

Ugh that would be awful! Two weeks....but interesting how it was for her then!

Also in the 'olden days' the hospitals were very different I imagine - not nearly as much of a need to worry about drug resistant superbugs gettin ya!

 

[Sam Pearson]

Well, I'm 47yo and hadn't really thought of myself as from the olden days but my 8yo asked me the other day if I did the Charlston when I was young. I had my first baby in hospital and was home on day 3. I had my other three at home. My Mum was agast when I said I was homebirthing and said I needed to go to hospital to "have a rest" as she had spent 10 days in hopspital. I explained that my hubby would be taking 2 weeks off and would do all the cooking and cleaning and caring for the older children and all I would be doing at home was resting and bonding and feeding my baby.

Times change but I do think it's important to rest after birth whereever you are. I personally aren't built for working a field a day after birthing.

 

[NaturalMomma]

The 2 week hospital stay was the cause of bed-fever and other hospital deaths postpartum. They would get blood clots in their legs because they wouldn't be allowed to get out of bed. This happened once birth went from home to hospital. "Doctors" had no medical training, not in today's standards, and they believed all sorts of things. This is where birth became a medical event and not a normal event that happened to most women. Back then they also would put women on top of the hopsital roof for a few days to "air out their vagina" if they suspected infection. This of course was not effective.

I do believe it is good to have a family member, friend or postpartum Doula help around the house and so on after baby is born. It is best for bonding, exhaustion and breastfeeding. Many of my friends who homebirth have a 2 week dyad where they stay in the bedroom or the level of the house where the bedroom is. I personally feel that while rest and bonding is extremely important, it is also important to get up every few hours to circulate the legs and body. After ds1 I spent most of my time in the bedroom, mostly because I had PPD. With ds2 who was a homebirth I spent most of my time in a comfy chair in the living room with my feet on a yoga ball. We did however have our first outing at just 5 days postpartum, I felt great at that time.

 

[shopgirl771]

This is true little ones. X

Wow I love interesting history like this natural mamma. Thanks x

 

[17thy]

The only thing I wanted to do was LEAVE the hospital and I was only there 36 hours last time. this time hopefully i can have a home birth though. And ain't that some shit about "airing their vaginas out on the rooftop" crazy!

 

[NaturalMomma]

I'd like to see a Doctor try to put a woman ontop of a roof to air her vagina out in this day and age I don't think that'd go over to well.

Birth history is pretty fascinating, and gruesome, especially when it first went to the hospital. Birth - The Suprising History of How We Are Born is a great book, as well as Birth Day.