Chapter V: Part 5

You will see I had my first two children under the year, all due to ignorance. It nearly sent me in a decline. My husband and myself were very young, and no one had ever talked to me. I am pleased it is different nowadays. I had a daughter married a year last Christmas; her husband and her is as pure yet as the day they married. She is twenty-seven, and her husband thirty years old. They are as happy as two children. They are both well read, and understand things better than I did when I married. They are passionately fond of children, and will go in for one presently.

It is my three last babies I have buried. The doctor says I must not have any more; it will be fatal to me if I do.

_Wages 22s. to 26s.; seven children._

85. EFFECTS OF WORRY.

Having suffered with rheumatic fever at the age of five, through going to live in a new damp house, perhaps explains the reason I suffered more than most women during pregnancy and confinement, as I was left with a weak heart all my life. I may also say I have had the same fever three times altogether. I married most happily, and my first miscarriage occurred when I had been married two years, through lack of strength, as I was anæmic. Two years afterwards my little girl was born, strong and healthy, although for nine months I was unable to walk or do my housework, and she has thrived up to the present age of six years. I never recovered my usual health, as I could not afford to rest after my confinement, as I had to work to help pay the debt incurred through my long illness. After one year I was again pregnant, and as I had overworked myself I was again too weak to carry; and thus occurred the second miscarriage, due entirely to having no rest. I suffered two months with hæmorrhage that threatened to end my life, but I revived and continued in a weakly state for three years, being just able to do my housework, when my little son was born, strong and healthy, weighing at birth 12 pounds, and has remained healthy up to two years, the present time; and I have fed both children by breast up to two years each, without the aid of stout or intoxicants, milk being my chief diet. Thus you will see that I have had two miscarriages and two lovely babies. If you can understand this jumble of events, you will notice that while I was worried by circumstances I could not bear children, while during both times when I was obliged to rest I was successful, showing that homes of rest for women in pregnancy and confinement would result in a great saving of life, and also result in children being healthy born. Also, the grant advocated would relieve the mother of the necessity to overwork herself.

In reference to my husband’s earnings, during the time they varied from 16s. 6d. to 25s. per week. But of course I never received more than the small amount in the winter, and the largest amount in the summer, for housekeeping, as my husband had to lose short time in winter.

_Wages 16s. 6d. to 25s.; two children, two miscarriages._

The family is not connected with the Women’s Co-operative Guild.

(_Reproduced by kind permission of the Medical Officer of Health for Liverpool._)]

86. “NOT MUCH STRENGTH LEFT.”

I am afraid I cannot tell you very much, because I worked too hard to think about how we lived. When my second baby came, I did not know how I was going to keep it. When the last one came, I had to do my own washing and baking before the week-end. Before three weeks I had to go out working, washing, and cleaning, and so lost my milk and began with the bottle. Twice I worked to within two or three days of my confinement. I was a particularly strong woman when I married. There is not much strength left. But, thanks be to God, I have not lost one. I have two girls and three boys, every one strong and healthy.

The firm my husband worked for failed; then for the most times he did not work; but I can truly say that for the most part of twenty-five years 17s. per week was the most I received from him.

_Wife’s allowance 17s.; five children._

87. STRUGGLES OF A MINER’S WIFE.

I dare say I could write a book on my early struggles with my seven children, and a miner’s home to contend with; and many a week my husband has not had a penny of wage to bring home, besides the experience of three big strikes and many small ones.

I may say we were married nineteen years before we lost one, and then I lost my baby first, a grand little girl of two. Then, a year and a half after, I lost a fine lad of fourteen in the fever hospital, of scarlet fever and diphtheria. Two years after that we lost a girl of twelve from tubercular disease of the kidneys from cow’s milk. The doctor was treating her for eight years for Bright’s disease of the kidneys. I brought them up breast-fed, so she must have contracted it after she was weaned. Such a clever child she was. So you will see we have had our troubles.

I may say I had very good times at confinements, except the first and the last. The youngest was born feet first, which was an awful experience, and her heart was nearly stopped beating; so I think that left her heart weak, and she cut her teeth with bronchitis. I used to get up always by the ninth day until the last. I was between forty-one and forty-two when she was born, so had to rest a bit longer, but had to see to household duties as soon as possible.

I am firmly of opinion that if the State wants strong, healthy, useful citizens, they should provide the mothers in the homes with sufficient wages where the husband’s wage is inadequate. Nor should married women be allowed to work outside the homes for some stated period before and after childbirth. The men should demand a decent living wage to provide for them at home.

_Seven children, one miscarriage._

88. “DID NOT LIKE TO SAY ANYTHING.”

I can safely say that had there been a centre to which I could have gone before my first boy was born I should have been saved the terrible torture I suffered both before and after confinement. I was very ignorant before marriage, and went away among strangers; and when I became pregnant I did not like to say anything to a strange doctor, and I had no lady friends whom I felt I could confide in. So I went about with an ulcerated stomach, sick after every attempt to take food; and when my baby came, I nearly lost my life. He was also very delicate for five years after birth, wholly due, I am convinced, to the state I was in whilst pregnant.

With the other two boys, I have always had to get about too soon. The month I have always had to have a woman in the house, during which time I have been absolutely helpless, being a terrific expense.

The doctor has ordered me to lie down for two hours each day, but that is absolutely impossible for a working man’s wife when she has two or three children around her, meals to provide, and the washing and cleaning, etc., to do in the home.

I speak from my own experience, and I know that there are thousands of women who are a million times worse off than I am, for I have the best husband in the world; but his nor any other working man’s wages won’t pay for help in the home at a cost of at least 12s. a week and food. On the very day my first baby was born my husband was thrown out of work. This was kept from my knowledge for five weeks, and I am sure you will guess all the scheming he used to keep me in ignorance. He had his club money for the period he was out of employment, which amounted to 9s. a week.

_Wages 25s. to 30s.; three children._

89. A BRUTAL HUSBAND.

I have just heard of the following case: A poor woman, only twenty-eight years of age, was confined last Wednesday with her seventh child, all living. She has been allowed to live until this affair is over in a deplorable cottage that is condemned. She has been living quite near for about four months, but I and my neighbours have never seen her nor the two youngest children, aged two and a half years and fifteen months, and we are now told they have no clothes to come out in. These two children were born in the workhouse infirmary. We hear that the father, a hay-carter, only did six weeks’ work in a twelvemonth. He must be a most brutal man. He was fighting the poor wife only a fortnight ago, as if she were another man. The poor thing lies there with only an old sheet and quilt for covering, and a poor woman who is attending to the other children has taken the blanket from her own baby to lend her. The very night the baby was born the midwife had to send for a policeman, the husband was carrying on in such a dreadful manner, and was worse afterwards, because they would not let him have the Insurance paper that had just been filled in by the midwife for the Insurance.

90. “I OVERDID MYSELF.”

Judging from my own experience, a fair amount of knowledge at the commencement of pregnancy would do a lot of good. One may have a good mother who would be willing to give needed information, but to people like myself your mother is the last person you would talk to about yourself or your state. Although mother nursed me with my first child, I never said one word to her about it coming, except the bare date I expected. I felt I couldn’t, and outside people only tell you what garments you need, and just the barest information. I have learned the most useful things since my children have grown up. The youngest is nine. The idea that you impress the child all through the time with your own habits and ways, or that its health is to a great extent hindered or helped by your own well-being, was quite unknown to me.

At the time I fell with my second child we were in very bad circumstances, and feeding my first with a bottle, I stinted myself all I could to give him plenty; and having moved from one house to another two months before the second one was born, I overdid myself, with the result that I was bad for a week before he was born; and then, the birth being such a long time about, a clot of blood got down into my ankle, and before I got far over the confinement I was laid up with a bad leg, which the doctor said was due to the child being so long coming into the world. I should say I had a midwife this time, as I could not afford the doctor’s fee. Had the midwife called in the doctor, as she should have done, I might have been saved a lot, for my back has never been right since. Whenever I get very tired or not very well, I always feel it in the place where he seemed fixed. So I feel that if young mothers knew more of the need for care of themselves, and what should be done for them at the time of childbirth, much suffering could be saved.

_Wages 18s. to 32s.; three children, one miscarriage._

91. “BETTER TO HAVE A SMALL FAMILY.”

I have only had the three children, and have been married thirty-two years. In the first place, I was only twenty years old when I had my first baby, and must confess that I suffered a great deal through ignorance, but am pleased to say that I always had all that was really necessary, as regards doctors and nursing. I may say that my husband and myself were quite agreed on the point of restricting our family to our means. If we had not done so, I could not possibly have reared my eldest girl. I was able to have good medical advice and give her plenty of attention day and night.

I may say that I have disgusted some of our Guild members by advocating restrictions. I think that it is better to have a small family and give them good food and everything hygienic than to let them take “pot-luck.”

_Wages £2 to £3; three children._

92. IGNORANCE.

I feel very keenly myself on the ignorance of young girls getting married and having babies, because I am quite sure some of my sufferings and the death of my babies need not have been.

When my first baby was brought into the world, within a few days of my twenty-first birthday, after three days’ labour and agony, the baby was nearly dead. I can hear now the slaps from that doctor on the child to bring life into him, and my own cry of “Let it die; do not beat it so.” He lived, a lovely boy but a cripple, for nine and a half months, admitted by the doctor to be through the long hours of labour.

A strong point has always been mine that doctors do not give sufficient advice to young mothers. I had to go through the same suffering with my second child, born an epileptic, living three months. My next three girls are alive to-day, spared, I honestly believe, through my own experience, and the fact of having more humane doctors with instruments. My last baby was literally torn from me. The doctor told my husband he could not save both. They dare not chloroform me, and so I had to bear it. The doctor said I must never have another child. I never have, but why should I have suffered? My first doctor could have said that I was not fitted. I had a good husband, a fairly good income, but when I think of poor women with probably indifferent or bad husbands, how do they live? If our scheme could be brought forward, what a help to know that a woman after a bad time could have a longer rest! Oh, the feeling of knowing that the nurse has gone, and you must wash and dress your own baby! Whereas if the mother could be helped--and the money could do this--how nice she would feel, as she could rest with her little one, after having made it comfortable, by having some help with the housework!

We want all our mothers to teach their daughters, not to keep everything from them, as it was kept from me. If we can only get expecting mothers to attend maternity homes--to see they get a good nurse, not a tippler: they should be banished from the profession.... I thank God that a band of good women are working on the maternity scheme for women.

_Wages 32s.; five children._

93. OUT-OF-DOOR EXERCISE EVERY DAY.

I had a very natural confinement with both, and a short, sharp time of labour with the first, rather more lingering with the second. My first was what they call a dry labour, and a very sick one--the worst the doctor had had--and it was very exhausting to me. The best times are bad enough, but I was told by the nurse that mine were good times. With the first she stayed a month, and the second three weeks, being called to another case. I think I was very fortunate in having a good mother, who always taught us from childhood how to live to be healthy, and both my sister and I had natural confinements through following her advice when young; that is what makes me so keen on “Moral Hygiene.” Young women do not take care or have proper exercise enough. Ordinary work does not do the harm. I did all my housework and the washing right up to the time of confinement both times, but I did not whitewash or do papering, as I know some do, and then wonder why they miscarry. Another one I know of insisted on the doctor giving chloroform, as she was sure she would never get through it without. Of course, I am very active, while some are indolent, and that has a great deal to do with it; and I made a practice of getting outdoor exercise every day, if not too far towards the end of the time, and at great inconvenience, as with the boy I had piles very bad, and often had to stop a moment or two before I could go on, but of course it was at night when I went out. I also had heartburn with both a short time, and a bad attack of indigestion, which I never suffer from at other times, but which the doctor soon relieved.

_Two children._

94. “GIVEN ANYTHING TO HAVE A GOOD SLEEP.”

There is a great deal of unnecessary suffering entailed on the woman during pregnancy by lack of not knowing what to do, or how to do it, such as having all her own washing and work to do, especially in the latter stages. When a man is only bringing home about £1 a week, and has two or three children, it is impossible for the mother to get proper help or even food. I think it would be a very good thing if something could be done to lighten that burden. I am not speaking as one that does not know. I have had it to do myself, in my early married life, but, thank God, my lot is changed now. I have had eleven children, two still-born, and one miscarriage, so have gone through it. I also think we should try and do something for the mothers after childbed, as many have to be about so soon after, and no doubt that tends to weakening the mother, so that she cannot give her child proper support, and cannot recover her own strength. I do not think any woman ought to attempt anything like hard work until she has had at least a month’s good nursing and support after confinement, but it is impossible to do it on a man’s pay at £1 or 25s. per week. I have always felt if I could only have another week or so of rest I should feel a different woman, and I am sure most of my poor sisters feel the same. I also think that if children were naturally fed it would be all the better for them. When I was pregnant I would have given anything to have had a good sleep during the day. I used to think it was idleness, and try to shake it off, but I do not think so now, and would give every poor woman all the rest she really needed.

_Wages about £1; nine children, two still-born, one miscarriage._

95. “HUSBAND WHO WAS NURSE AND MOTHER.”

I was brought up in the country with a cat and a dog for playmates, so when I went among other young people, I was very shy, and never made girl friends. That may account for my ignorance in the things that mattered at the time of my marriage, at the age of twenty-one and a half. My husband was just as ignorant, and we had to pay very dearly for our ignorance. I was married about eight weeks when I became ill; I went to the doctor and took a lot of physic, but was no better, then I would not have any more from the doctor, and tried to doctor myself, but I was very ill the whole of the seven and a half months that I was pregnant. The birth was a forced one. I was taken very ill, and knowing baby should not come for six weeks longer, I was bearing the pain as well as I could, just cheering myself that it would be less to go through when the time came, when my husband came in and would insist on getting a doctor. We tried a new one this time, who lived quite near. He had just left the infirmary, and we had heard he was very clever in maternity. When he saw me and questioned me, he sent for the nurse. The rest of that night is too terrible to go through even now after twenty-eight years. Suffice it to say that next morning there was a poor little baby boy with a very large swollen head dreadfully cut, and a young mother dreadfully cut also. One would have thought the trouble was over now--anyhow, we thought so, but we found it had only begun. A week or two after the pains began. I thought it was all right, that I had not got quite well. At last I had to go to the doctor again. He told me I was going on all right. At the end of six weeks the nurse called. I told her just how I felt, and that the doctor said it was through the bad confinement I had gone through. She told me to tell him to come and examine me thoroughly, that there was something growing there. He came, and when my husband saw him afterwards, he said, “Oh, there is really nothing. There is a little hardness there, that is all. Your wife is very nervous.” My husband told him that I was anything except nervous. However, I went on for eighteen months, never knowing what moment those terrible pains were going to take me. Many times it was in the street. I was in bed about eight months out of the eighteen. Then came a very terrible time, and my husband called another doctor in, and I was ordered into the B. Infirmary at once. I got better. I was home three months, when I was carried in again. They said it was ovarian trouble. They wanted to operate. My husband asked them how long I might live as I was. They said I might live for years, but I would always be subject to these attacks. He told them he would rather keep me as I was than risk an operation. On inquiring the cause of the trouble, I was told by the nurse it was confinement. I went on in much the same way until my boy was ten years old. Then I had to be operated on. It was a case of life or death then. But if I went into the Infirmary I could not choose my doctor, so Dr. ---- offered to do the operation free, but I would have to go into a private hospital, which meant a good deal to us, who hardly knew which way to turn for an extra shilling then. However, my husband insisted that Dr. ---- was to do the operation, and by letting everything else go he managed to get the money together by the time I came out, which was three weeks at £3 3s. per week and £1 7s. 6d. for the second nurse. The trouble was a multiple tumour; it had grown round about the intestines. They had to tear the one from the other. After leaving the hospital I was in bed for three months, but it was a complete cure, though no one except my husband expected me to get over it. Dr. ---- told me I could not have gone through a more serious operation unless I had had my head taken off, and then there was no hope at all.

Now I maintain that if we had understood things relating to married life, all this could have been saved. I would not have starved myself and child before birth for one thing, and I would have been more careful on washing days not to lift tubs or jump to reach lines, neither would I have cleaned windows and a hundred and one other things that a pregnant woman should not do, and, above all, we would not have had an inexperienced doctor.

I must just tell you that my husband has always been husband, nurse, and mother. The pain was never quite so bad when he was near, and no one ever made my bed like him.

Our income, until baby was six months old, was £1 6s. per week. Then my husband got out of employment--was out four months. He took up an agency, and did a very little with it, but with that little and about £2 12s. 6d. we had managed to save, and pawning, we got through without going into debt until he got another job. This lasted about eighteen months, averaging about 30s. per week. Then for about twenty months he averaged about 10s. per week. Our home went then a thing at a time, but we got through at the expense of our insides and outsides, without help or debt, except doctor’s bills. Then we came to this town on £1 7s.; after a few years £1 9s. The rise came just two years before I underwent the operation. We had our home to get out of that, and had to get it on the hire system (or borrow from friends, and we both objected to borrowing). Some people say drink is the cause of poverty, but I think you will agree with me when I say we had not enough to drink. Our rent would work out at about 6s. per week. I think this is what you want. Of course, things are very much better with us now, and have been for the last twelve years, both in health and finance. I just want to add that although the first half of my married life was so hard and painful, I would not have missed one bit of it, because it has all helped to make me understand things that matter from a practical point of view. If there is anything more I can help in I shall be pleased to do so.

_Wages 26s. to 30s.; one child._

96. INJURY AT CONFINEMENT.

I rather shrink from talking about myself on the subject, but if my remarks would help any young mother, I don’t so much mind. My husband’s average wage was about 24s. a week.... I helped in the work, as his earnings were not nearly enough as the children came. I had four children at intervals of about two years, whom I was able to nurse, but although I had no illness during pregnancy, with my fifth baby I had a very long illness through the doctor hurrying the birth, instead of giving nature a chance, and he was rough in handling me. Now, the result was a three months’ illness, and my baby had to be brought up by bottle.

What was still more serious, I was so injured that for nearly ten years I was an invalid. During that period I had two premature confinements, and several slight miscarriages. Then I got a little stronger, and finally my sixth baby was born without the help of a doctor, because I was so afraid of a repetition of what I had suffered. I am glad to say I gradually recovered, although all my friends thought I would never get well.

I think every expectant mother should have a duly qualified nurse to attend her. I had several miscarriages. There is a better chance now than when I was having my family. Good nursing is necessary. I rejoice to know that the Guild is pressing forward on this matter.

_Wages about 24s.; six children, one still-born, several miscarriages._

97. CHILDLESS.

I have had four children, and all were born one year and a half after each other. My two eldest died in one week from whooping-cough, age five and three. Two of my children were still-born. I was very young at the time, and only wish this Maternity Scheme had come out years ago. I have a good husband, but we are childless, I am sorry to say. I am on many committees, and take a great interest where children are concerned.

_Wages 18s. to 27s.; two children, two still-births, one miscarriage._

98. “I SIMPLY STRUGGLED ON.”

I have had two children. I never was so well in my life as I was during pregnancy over my first. A bearing-down caused hæmorrhoids. However, I was not troubled greatly with them then. My second child was born one year and seven months afterwards. Now all the time during pregnancy over him I was thoroughly ill. My work was a trouble, and altogether I _was_ ill. But as pregnancy is never thought a sufficient cause for even having a holiday, I simply struggled on for fear of being held up to ridicule. You see, I was only twenty-two years old then, and thought that the only way to do was to show a brave front, even though I felt almost too ill to do anything. Well, I had to have chloroform, and again I had to have instruments; and my children would never be born naturally, for my womb is in the wrong place, the doctor says. I had also a trained nurse who despaired again of my life.

I was in bed one month for maternity and was unable to do my work even when I did get up. I could not mother either of my children, for I never had any milk. That was a grief to me. I had hæmorrhoids again through bearing down, brought on through pregnancy, and from these I suffered for three years and doctored for them. Then I had an operation and had them removed. I have not had more children, neither do I want them, as the doctor fears my life will pay the forfeit. I had a serious operation for tumour in the womb four years ago, and have been much better in health ever since.

_Two children._

99. STORY OF A CONFINEMENT.

My first child was born ten months after my marriage. My husband’s age at marriage was twenty-eight years, and my own age twenty-five years, and we are both Londoners, residing all our life in the city of London, until my first-born attained the age of eleven months.

My children have been born quite healthy, and the doctors have said fine babies. But I am pleased to say I am a mother who has had no terrible sufferings to relate as to the sufferings of a long period of labour. Two hours and a half has been the time from the very first stage of labour, until the appearance into this world of each of my children. And I would say, personally, women were never created to suffer as many a one does. I made this remark to my first nurse, and she said, “You are right.” I had been told such experiences by women who had had families. It is nature, and nature does or should do its own work, she said. Take, for instance, the apple. When it is fully ripe, it falls from the tree. So the child, when the time has arrived for its appearance, I say it should come as naturally, not to look upon the little creature distorted and bruised through having to be brought into the world.

My strong conviction is, as soon as a woman feels the slightest pain she should have immediate attention. You are strong at the commencement, and able to give the help in bringing your baby, but if allowed to go on for hours your strength is exhausted, you have lost that power and vitality which you require, that after hours of suffering artificial means have to be resorted to.

My second child was born at N----. The doctor did his own work and the nurse’s too, arriving and leaving the house in half an hour, my mother just taking the baby until the nurse had time to get in the room.

Now, by my third child I will try to show where I think much is at fault by not having immediate attention. My little daughter was born in D----. My husband had at four o’clock to fetch the doctor and nurse (a qualified midwife) nearly two miles away; no other reliable nearer.

They resided a stone’s-throw from each other. But on bringing the nurse and explaining while she dressed she was to call the doctor, she would not hear of it, and fairly repudiated the idea of such a quick confinement, sarcastically saying, never in her experience. Well, the doctor was not informed. Previously on engaging them I made it quite clear how my boys had been born--so quickly. In D----, I may say in passing, indiarubber gloves are worn by the nurse on receiving the child, and like all rubber things in these cases have to be boiled before using. Nurse arrived. Every single thing was ready for her. There was a bright fire, and every possible article to lay her hands on, baby’s clothes on the horse airing and warming.

She looked at me in my agony, and said: “Oh, not likely to come off yet, ma” (to my mother), and sent the old soul out for a saucepan to boil the new gloves in. Well, it went on for a time, until I felt my pains were leaving me, and I would not trouble any longer; I was tired. But I thought, no. Why should I suffer? I called to my husband, and he came to the bedroom door, and I said: “Fetch the doctor, I want attention.” He went. The nurse said: “Well, I know you have the whole day to go by the look of things. Doctor will be very cross. He is very busy, and does not like being brought out of bed. He knows everything is right when I am on the case.” I felt another little pain, and I made another effort, my breath almost gone. I called to her, boiling her gloves: “If you do not leave those blessed things, the child will be here.” She flew to me, laughing at an unnecessary fuss, but my child was entering the world, two minutes after my husband had left the house, but, being certified, she did the doctor’s work. But she could not get the afterbirth, and pushed and fairly punched my stomach most unmercifully to get it, and I said: “Well, nurse, I really cannot stand this any longer. My two previous doctors had said, never be in a hurry for this. Let nature have its course; it will come in time. The doctor will be here soon, and he will soon get it.” The doctor had heard and come in, and told the nurse to see to the baby, who was bitterly cold, and he would see to me. In a very few minutes I was quite comfortable.

The doctor was very cross at not having been notified by the nurse that she was on her way to me, knowing the statement I had given when engaging them.

If there is truth in it or not, I was told later that if all was over and done with before the arrival of the doctor, the nurse was given something out of the fee.

I might say, having my mother with me, I only required the nurse night and morning, and this nurse only went out like that, because she had so many cases she preferred them so. But it happened I did not see her one evening during the time, and on the third day she did not put in an appearance at all, and on the Sunday, two o’clock; other days the times ranged from twelve till three o’clock when she came.

My confinements have been splendid ones, but for all that I feel it is almost, if not quite, three months before a mother feels her strength the same as before. What women feel like who have to turn out shortly after to work hard, I would not like to imagine.

I personally have always felt, besides not having the usual amount of strength, I have been very forgetful; for instance, I would go to the cupboard and quite forget what I had gone for, and have to stand and think for a little time, and then very likely not know. During pregnancy, my health was always very good, and I was able to do all household duties and washing right up to the time of my confinement. But towards evening I would be tired all over, and be thankful to go to bed. But I usually took a glass of hot milk at bedtime. I found it not only soothed the nerves, but induced sleep. I took a dose of castor oil once a fortnight.

I have nursed all my children for ten months, not allowing a particle of any kind to pass their lips in the way of foods but my own milk until nine months old, and then gradually weaned them off.

I have stated above feelings to show what a woman feels who does not endure great sufferings in childbirth.

My strong conviction is that unless there is anything wrong internally, and a woman takes a bit of care as to what she eats and drinks during pregnancy, and has, as I say, immediate attention, much suffering would be alleviated.

I am the average working man’s wife, who spends most of her time looking to the needs of an old mother, husband, children, and home, cutting and contriving to make the weekly income go as far as one possibly can, attending the Guild as quite a change, and seeking to obtain as much knowledge of the Women’s Movement on to Progress; and where, here and there, I may be able to pass an opinion, I do; and try to live, that when I have passed away the world will be none the worse for my being in it.

_Wages £1 15s. to £2 5s.; three children._

100. A WRECK AT THIRTY.

I had seven children and one miscarriage in ten years and three months. This left me at the age of thirty a complete wreck. My great difficulty was during pregnancy, suffering very severely from sickness, so much so, indeed, that on two occasions I was under the doctor the whole of the time. The doctor gave me his services free.

I tremble even now to think what my life would have been but for his kindness to me. I could not have paid for a doctor, as wages were only £36 a year, and I had to pay £10 a year rent out of that. When I look back upon those days I wonder how we did live.

My last child was born a delicate, weak child, who suffered from malnutrition until she was eleven months old, and at her birth the doctor told me I should never have another strong and healthy baby, and that women should only have a child every three years, and rest at least a month after confinement. He knew I could not give myself the rest I needed, for I could not afford to pay anyone to look after my home and children. I had to rely upon some child of thirteen who was able to leave school, and whose parents were glad of the 2s. 6d. a week I could ill afford to pay. I have been forced on many occasions to do things no woman lying-in should have done. I have left my bed on the tenth day, and have had to do the family washing as early as a fortnight.

I do feel most strongly that women should be able to get advice and help during pregnancy. Our children are a valuable asset to the nation, and the health of the woman who is doing her duty in rearing the future race should have a claim upon the national purse. Ample provision should be made so that she could give of her best.

_Wages 10s. to 14s. and husband’s food; seven children and one
miscarriage._

101. TWO CHILDREN IN EIGHTEEN MONTHS.

I have only had two children. I was married at the age of twenty-three. My husband was twenty-five. I had been married just eleven months when my first baby was born. Now, as soon as ever I knew I was pregnant, I set about (with the help of a considerate and helpful husband) taking the greatest care of myself for the sake of the babe unborn, in such things as diet, exercise, fresh air, etc. I did no very heavy work. My husband and I did the washing in the evening, he did all the dollying and wringing, and helped me in many ways. The result was I had a fine and healthy baby, and during pregnancy I was so well myself, and I had everything a working man’s wife could have to make things as easy as possible. I had no worry of any kind, and that I consider a great comfort to a woman.

At my confinement I had a doctor and a nurse, and if I had not had what I believe is called a dry labour, I should have had the easiest of times (and they are bad enough), but the water broke at 6 a.m., and my baby was not born till 4.30 p.m.

My baby was never the slightest trouble. I had been in the nursery before I was married, both as nurse and nursery governess, so my baby had all the care and attention I had been taught to bestow on babies. I was sorry to find, when my baby was a year old, that I was again pregnant. I had breast-fed my baby up till then, for she had cut no teeth till she was eleven months old, although she was strong and well and running about at nine months old; of course, I weaned her at once. We were very disappointed to find I was going to have another baby so soon after the first. We had not intended this to happen. However, I made the best of it, and had a son when the daughter was eighteen months old. I was not so well carrying the second baby, and he was as great a handful when a baby as my first baby was no trouble, and by the time he was six months old I was very weak and ill. I think having the two children so quickly, and nursing my first baby so long, had been a great strain. The second child was not so strong a baby as the first. He suffered from teething eczema, and I lost a great deal of rest. My second confinement was fairly good, although I had thought the baby was coming two or three times before he came, labour pains came on and went away; and when my boy was born the doctor said if he had been another half-hour in the birth, he would have been dead. I should have sent for a doctor a week previously, but not knowing the exact time to expect my baby, I did not want to send for the doctor until it was really necessary.

I never had any more children. I was ill and weak for a long time while having to nurse my second baby, and having them so quickly. How women, and poor women, can have children year after year, is a marvel to me. I know of cases here close to where I live, where a consumptive mother is having babies nearly every year. To me it seems terrible, bringing such children into the world, a burden to their parents, to themselves, and to the nation, for they are only wrecks, and fill our hospitals, mental deficiency schools, and prisons. But the cases are so common. Where they are poorest, where they have not enough to live on and keep their present family decently, they still have more children.

I am sure there is great need for thought and care being given to the mother previous to childbirth and afterwards, and I do feel that a scheme as is suggested is a good one, and that the public health authority should deal with all maternity cases. It would mean untold happiness to the coming generations. It will be grand to get a maternity benefit such as you suggest, and it is most necessary. We have some women in the Guild who feel we should be more independent than take such sums as maternity benefit. They do not realise that we pay rates and taxes just as property owners do, though indirectly.

How some of our poorest women exist year after year, bearing all, I cannot understand. For, if having two children, as I did, in eighteen months wrecked my health, which it did for a long time--and only through having one of the best of husbands was I helped to pull through--I wonder what so many other less fortunate women suffer. It is just slavery and drudgery.

_Wages 28s.; two children._

102. NEED FOR NOURISHMENT AFTER CONFINEMENT.

For what I can see of others, I came off fairly well; but, in the first instance, my first child was a girl. I was very well during pregnancy, but being such a strong child the doctor told me to give it the bottle; but, on the other hand, the nurse persuaded me to keep it to the breast. The result was as soon as I got about, by keeping the child to the breast, I had two gathered breasts. I had the two breasts in slings till they broke. The next two being boys--two years between--I was right well during pregnancy. But as soon as a mother is able to get up and have to work, that is the time her health fails her, for she finds she has to feed the rest of her little family, and goes without her own food, and then, through lack of nourishment, often mothers have to go to their bed again.

In the first place, when we were married my husband was a fireman. We ran along smoothly, and up to the time my first and second child was born his standing wage was 30s. a week and overtime. The time went on, and in two years the second was born. Now, just before it came it was my husband’s turn to go to pass for engine driver. The result was he failed to pass the eyesight test. It was a great shock to us both, more so to my husband. It was then the dots they had to count at a distance. They then reduced him to 21s. a week to work in the shed, so we thought it was cruel to run the risk of more family on such a wage. To keep my home up and keep the children respectable I had to take in two young men lodgers, which we have done till I started the children to business. Of course, I take it you don’t want to know the ups and downs of life between these times. I must say I have had the best of husbands, or else I should not have been alive now.

If there could be such a thing as a Maternity Club started it would be a benefit to all married women, because the majority of us have to screw and save for confinement, where we ought to be able to have good food and more nourishing food while we are carrying the child, but often have to go with less.

_Wages 21s. to 30s.; three children, one miscarriage._

103. HER “LOT.”

Your letter to hand reminding me of my promise to let you have a few details of my neighbour’s life. At first she hesitated about telling anything, as she said it was all past and done with, and at times felt ashamed at having had thirteen children, especially to a man like her husband (who is a drunkard). She looks back on her past life at the age of forty-eight with different feelings to what she had at thirty. Then she thought it was her “lot,” as she terms it, to have so many children, and so many sickly ones, but now she feels she has been to blame for many things--for instance, for the number of children she has had; for the dulness and lack of energy in two of them; for the feeble-mindedness in a third; deafness and sore eyes in a fourth. She blames the conditions under which she bore those children during pregnancy. She was married at nineteen, and a mother before she was twenty, with no knowledge whatever of the duties of motherhood. Her first five children came in rapid succession. While she was pregnant of her sixth child her husband fell out of work, and was out of work six months. During this time they had 10s. a week to live on (from the husband’s trade union). She went out washing and cleaning-up to the last week of her confinement. While cleaning windows at one of the houses she slipped and fell, hurting her side. Three days later the child was born, apparently all right, but as time went on the mother noticed there was something wrong, but nobody seemed to know what. This child did not cut its teeth till two years old, nor walk without help till it was seven, and now, at the age of eighteen, you can hardly make out a word he says. He is not exactly an imbecile, but he is feeble-minded, and all this could have been avoided could the mother have had proper nourishment during pregnancy, and less work. The mother had to work hard all day, and got little rest at night, as the fifth child was weakly and ailing, and the neighbour who looked after the child during the day used to put gin in its milk to stop its crying, which it did till the effects of the gin had passed off. The poor mother, not knowing that gin was given to the child, would often, after a hard day’s work, spend most of the night pacing the bedroom floor, trying to soothe the fretful child, and often had to go downstairs because the crying disturbed her husband. It was not until her sixth child came, the feeble-minded one, that the neighbour admitted giving it gin. Consequently the lad has grown up dull, never made any headway at school. He is a labourer, and twenty years of age, and will never be anything else but a labourer, because, as his mother says, he has no “head-piece,” and cannot do a simple sum in arithmetic to save his life. The mother firmly believes her children would have been as bright as anybody’s could she have had proper nourishment during pregnancy, and herself cared for them after they were born. Her girl of sixteen is deaf in one ear, and has weak eyes, the after-effects of measles when a child. The mother nursed this child a fortnight, then was obliged to leave her with a neighbour while she went out to work. The neighbour neglected the child in letting her run out too soon, etc., and as there were no school clinics when her children went to school, some of them are suffering to-day from diseases which might have been cured, could they have had attention at the proper time. Now that they are grown up they seem fairly healthy, though undersized, but when one considers their childhood, the want of sufficient food, lack of fresh air (the younger ones always slept four in bed, two at the top and two at the bottom), one wonders they are as healthy as they appear to be. They seem to be fairly good workers, but not one good scholar among them. And to add to the above discomforts, they had a drunken, brutal father. He was never a real father, a surly, gloomy man, never a kind word for his children, and not one of them remembers a caress from him. I can quite understand the woman being ashamed of bearing thirteen children to a man like him, and having to rear them in surroundings and conditions which she has reared hers. It takes it out of the mother mentally and physically.

_Wages 16s. to 30s.; thirteen children._

104. NEED OF REST.