Mother and baby advice from 1960 - ask away!

[TerpsichoreanMuse]

I've been clearing out my father's house (he's sold it) and I've found the baby manuals given to my mother when I was born in 1960.

There are four: the "Glaxo Mother and Baby" book, "From Milk to Mixed Diet" (a guide to modern baby feeding), "Relaxation and exercise for natural childbirth" (1959) and "You and your baby," published by the BMA.

If anyone would like any advice (only 60 years out-of-date!) on this topic, please ask and I shall attempt to answer.

And here are some alternative boys' names for those not attracted by Simon. Sacheverell, anyone?

@TerpsichoreanMuse

Lockdownlovernotfromliverpool

I found something about sleeping outside!

The best place for baby's daytime sleep is in a pram in the open air (except when it is foggy or wet) with a safety net stretch over it to prevent cats from jumping up.

All my babies did that :-) Just like my Mum did with me.

This thread is fantastic! I love that 'habit training' starts from 1 year 3 months. I seem to remember that my lovely MiL always said that my SiL was fully potty trained by 18 months or something equally ridiculous (and she's telling the truth too) . She swears it's that disposable nappies are so good that babies can't feel they are wet, whereas presumably terry nappies sog down to their knees.

Snorted at the nappy being referred to as a 'napkin'. Not sure why that's so funny??!!!

My two, born in the 80's were put in the garden in their silver Cross pram for naps, they slept really well.
My ds had Terry nappies and was dry in the day at 20 months. My dd had disposables and was almost 3 before she was dry. So I agree with your mil @ChristmasCalamity.

My first baby was born in 1972m in the maternity ward of a general hospital in England. All the mums stayed in hospital for 10 days after delivery; it was called "lying in" and so peaceful, restful and enjoyable I'm sure it will come back into fashion one day. We were in a ward of a dozen beds, with the babies in plastic cribs beside us; waited on hand and foot, lots of rest and chat, midwives (and experienced mothers) to advise you on everything, help the baby latch on etc. At night all the babies were taken away to a night nursery so the mums could get a good nights sleep. If you were breastfeeding, a midwife would bring the baby in the night to be fed, then take him away to change and put him back in the cot. Bottle fed babies were fed in the night nursery by nurses. We all slept like logs and got the babies back after breakfast. Visitors were restricted to a one-hour slot in the afternoon and again in the evening; one quiet adult visitor at a time, close family only, no children. For 10 days, all you did was get to know your new baby; practise feeding, changing and bathing it (with midwife back up whenever required) . While still lying in, most women experienced a weepy "baby blues " day , comforted by midwives.

When we got home, there were several follow up visits at home by a midwife (over about a fortnight iirc).

   Among all my friends and peers having babies with "lying in", I only ever met one who later had PND.  I'm pretty sure it was because, after giving birth, we were so thoroughly rested and supported  and had got the hang of babycare basics  before  going home.

@2bazookas
It sounds wonderful but I doubt we will see those days again. It's a cost issue surely? I absolutely hate how they assume new mums want to go home straight away nowadays. I was sent home just two hours after giving birth...I was made to feel like a right nuisance for being there. I often wonder why women aren't allowed one night uninterrupted sleep after going through labour? I'm sure many would enter motherhood feeling much more positive if they did.

@Iwasonceabrownie

I had mine in the early 70s, I was in hospital for 8 days, waited on hand and foot by the nurses 😂. I loved every moment of it, we also had a smoking room down the corridor that was full most days.

Our babies were fed every 4 hours, not on demand. As for non stop feeding throughout the night, it was unheard of. They were fed,winded, changed and put back in the cot, that was as far as sleep training went, I must admit, they did get used to this very quickly,mine was sleeping through the night by 6 months as were most of my friends babies.

Mine had the yolk of a egg at 4 months as well and yes they were put in the garden with a cat net over the pram, front and back gardens, while we got on with housework.

Nobody criticised you for bottle feeding, nobody was bothered about how you brought your own child up. We also didn't have so many books about what was right or wrong. In fact I don't think I ever read a book on bring up babies at all. We all seemed to get by with asking perhaps a neighbour who had an older child or just going by our own gut feeling.

My first was born in 1975, all of this! Except he went through the night (midnight to 6am) from five weeks. My friends were green with envy.

@TerpsichoreanMuse

And here are some alternative boys' names for those not attracted by Simon. Sacheverell, anyone?

Yorick! Urban? Tancred??

Where are they getting these names from, apart from Shakespeare obviously- alas poor little Yorick.

@ChristmasCalamity

This thread is fantastic! I love that 'habit training' starts from 1 year 3 months. I seem to remember that my lovely MiL always said that my SiL was fully potty trained by 18 months or something equally ridiculous (and she's telling the truth too) . She swears it's that disposable nappies are so good that babies can't feel they are wet, whereas presumably terry nappies sog down to their knees.

Snorted at the nappy being referred to as a 'napkin'. Not sure why that's so funny??!!!

My DD born 1980 was dry at 18m, during the day time anyway. I agree with your MIL about the nappies too.

UrbanThere was a pope Urban, not sure when.

I gave birth to my last baby in Rotten Row Maternity hospital in Glasgow; huge old Victorian place with Nightingale wards. There was a terrifying oldfashioned matron who insisted all the mothers drink a bottle of Guinness last thing every evening "to boost your milk supply". On my first night I said, no thankyou I don't like it. She bawled at me " I'm going to stand here. Mother, until you drink it all FOR YOUR BABY's SAKE.". She did, and I did. This was 1977.

I live this thread! Needs to be in classics.

The leaving baby in a pram outside reminded me of a my Nan. Nan had my dad in '57, she went shopping in town, baby left outside the shop in his pram with the others while the mums shopped. Nan got home (1.5 mile walk), putting the shopping away when she realised baby was still in his pram outside the shop. Nan walked back and found baby still sleeping in his pram outside the shop 😂

@Notlostjustexploring

This is fascinating. I love this stuff. I've also got the aforementioned Dream Babies book. (One lot of parenting advice, Victorian I think, was daily, ice cold baths, while singing lustily to drown out the screams.)

What does it say about reflux/colic/excessively crying babies?

Does it say how to put babies down to sleep?

I knew a local Scottish lady who had a Nanny, and one of Nanny's tasks was to dunk the child in the sea every day all year round, total immersion. The infant grew to a 6 ft tall Amazon with the constitution of an ox, and lived to 97.

I remember leaving my youngest outside the supermarket while her 4 year-old brother guarded the pram and my 2yr old was in the trolley.

I left mine in his pram outside a shop and was halfway home when I realised he was still there. I’ve never run so fast in my life as I did to get back to him that day!

Sorry, but I had to chuckle at

and is of no importance so don't worry about it.

Now off you pop. Do a bit of dusting and you'll soon forget about it!

There used to be pram parks in supermarkets, you left your baby in the pram. I remember going round with my mum when an assistant hurried over to us and suggested my mum come and look at her baby. My sister was happily sitting in the pram smashing a dozen eggs over herself.

Bit hard to read of the rose tinted specs of babies being fed every 4 hours. They must have been so hungry

@ShirleyPhallus

Bit hard to read of the rose tinted specs of babies being fed every 4 hours. They must have been so hungry

A lot of them were formula fed, it was regarded as the norm in those days. Mine didn’t stir for four hours after a feed.

As a general rule, don't drink alcohol, and certainly not in large quantities.

As opposed to when pregnant - I was born in the 50s and mum was recommended Mackeson, presumably instead of folic acid!

As well as in the garden, I also remember prams (with baby inside) left outside shops while mums went in to do their shopping.

I've really enjoyed his thread, thank you OP. I wondered about the prices of things and spoke to my parents about it. In 1968 my mum was a student nurse and earned 32 pounds a month, and my dad earned less than half that as an apprentice. Their rent was £5 a week so those maternity dresses were actually quite expensive. Fascinating stuff

I had my babies in the 70s and wanted to breastfeed. I got no help or encouragement, only the assumption that I, like everyone else, would feed dried milk.
We were told to feed four hourly from birth, at 6, 10, 2, 6, 10, 2.
A generation earlier my mother had twins and had to feed the bigger baby four hourly and the smaller one three hourly. She had them both out of nappies at eighteen months old (no washing machines or tumble dryers)

MIL had her first in 1956, that’s DH, she went home after three days and was told if he screams leave him because he has to learn to settle himself. With this in mind there no overnight feeds, because she’d been told to ignore him. He was hospitalised with malnutrition when he was a toddler. She never saw any link between not being fed and being malnourished. This came up when she was telling me not to cook food for my twins, she insisted that I should feed them on X brand of jarred food.

Fascinating thread.
It’s easy to discredit some advice, but surely some of it is fabulous advice... and some... not so...

@TerpsichoreanMuse Thank you for that. I want one of those prams now (despite no longer having a baby). Or maybe they'll do similar colours for cars?