To be enjoying reading this 'Complete Babycare' book from 1979?

[Kayano]

I asked my mum a bit of advice (how old normally when they roll over) and she cracked out this gem of a book

I am reading it like

Some choice quotes:
'pregnancy can be a very enjoyable time for women, a time when one can make the most of long days at home and seek out pursuits such as sewing or dressmaking...'

:O

'most women have slight swelling of the hands and fingers in late pregnancy'

This wouldn't be so bad if not accompanied by a pic of a woman looking all bolted and sadly having to lay down her knitting needles. Really!

'rest periods are also ideal times for embarking on practical preparations, like knitting baby clothes'
Accompanied by an enthusiastic knitter.

'once your baby is born you will spend even more time in the kitchen.'

I never spend time
In the kitchen unless I have run out of chocolate and need to make
Some emergency cake mix. I don't spend time in the kitchen now! If I do the night feed damn straight DH is cooking and sterilising the bottles

Thank god things have progressed!

This book was an edition published in the 1980s but you totally
Wouldn't think so! It's from m&s too!

I loved my copy of What to Expect... dearly - but it was truly deranged on the subject of healthy eating.
It did indeed say that you could have a slightly dodgy thing like a white croissant once a week and a real treat like cake or an ice cream once a month.I had a very serious Magnum habit while I was reading it, and worked out that I'd need to have another 10 babies in order to get back into credit.

I was born in 1965 - I'm very suspicious of how much time I may have spent in my beautiful Silver Cross pram at the end of the garden out of ear-shot gazing up happily or otherwise at the dancing leaves.

I was always told I was breast-fed but again suspect early introduction of dubious rusk type solids, evaporated milk, orange juice, and rose-hip syrup etc !

I have my mum's 1960's version of Dr Spocks book - it does advise to avoid lead nipple shields and is a fab read.

I have taken this advice aboard, in case anyone is concerned

babyboomersrock Am for you.

babyboomersrock - Just read your post out loud to DH and we are both a bit tearful...

My mum was also born in 1947 and left outside most of the day in her pram. There was a bus stop outside my nanna's house and the people in the queue used to chat and coo to her so at least she got a bit of stimulation! She did try and get me to do the 4-hourly feeding thing as that's what she did to me but to her credit she saw how how contented DS was to be fed on demand and said she wished she'd known.

This quote from Mrs Beetons:

"It is sometimes customary to apply borax and honey to the mouth for thrush; but it is always better to treat the disease constitutionally rather than locally."

had me as borax is a poison and can cause problems with the reproductive organs of children.

Don't be sad for me. I've had plenty of cuddles since I grew up, and I still hug my grown-up children and my baby grandson - and my (second) DH makes me feel loved every day. Of course I wish my mother could have held me close and made me feel safe, but I don't think she knew how.

I think it made me more patient with my children; I couldn't have borne for them to feel "in the way", as we often did.

Mum did try to make me do things her way when I had my own babies, but eventually I found the courage to tell her I was doing it my way - breastfeeding on demand, night feeds, the lot. We had a serious falling-out but we resolved it over the years to an extent, and in the last days of her life I was able to look after her - and hug her. That was quite healing, weirdly.

DS1 was born in 1998. I remember a book, it may even have been the NHS pregnancy book, suggesting that if you are tired easily at work you could ask your employer to provide somewhere for you to take a little nap! Yes, my boss would have loved me going for a little nap, most employers were and indeed still are of the opinion that you are there to work not nap I would think. My mum has an old child health book somewhere, I bet it has some gems in it.

But, but, but - I keep being told that there never used to be baby books until Dr Spock!

My DSM tells me that Dr Spock is the reason my DSB is alive today. The GP receptionist didn't want to allow her to see the doctor as "all babies cry", but the Dr Spock book assured her that she knew her baby better than anyone else, so gave her the confidence to insist. As soon as Dr saw the distended stomach, got him rushed to hospital and he's still around 40 years later.

My mum gave me a 1950s book on childbirth. It said it was called labour because it is jolly hard work!

Some of those quotes are amazing! Wish I had a book like that to refer to.

I do have a pre-WW2 cookbook my nan gave me that is ridicuously racist!!!!

I was given a second hand copy of what to expect when your expecting, it wasn't THAT old,maybe 5 or 10 years. Every mum and dad in it were wearing wedding rings and it constantly refered to your husband! I think that's outdated already!

I picked up a very old copy of a Doctor Spock book, and it's been very entertaining !

Obviously much of the feeding/potty training advice has changed beyond recognition - and much more besides - but what comes across, is the recognition that you only have to be a 'good enough' mother,- not supermum and to take time for yourself, and also tuning into your children (rather than giving them a pat on the head each evening..) to understand them - quite emlightened for the times really!

Ex-dh says he was brought up by Dr Spock - myself - I don't think my mum would have known a parenting book if it jumped up, and wrestled her by the throat - she just spat on the back of the fire and said - "aye - thats as mebbe!"

We both turned out OK - but it's been a very interesting read..

I had the Good Housekeeping Baby Book when my first was born in 1975. Istr it informed me that by the time I was 9mths pregnant I would look like a galleon in full sail. Errrr.....thanks for that.

Funny as some of these things seem, we're looking at them through the eyes of our western culture. Go somewhere like Indonesia and you'll find that even our modern ideas of babyrearing seem bizarre. Few babies wear nappies there, they are indeed 'held out' at regular intervals and it seems to work for them, though the warmer climate has to be an advantage there! As for baby cages, Indonesians are just as bemused at our habit of keeping babies in 'boxes' which is what they call cots. A baby oughtn't be put a box to sleep, it should be right there in bed with you, where it can be warm and fed and safe. Likewise spending money on prams, when you can carry your baby next to you in a sling made from any old length of fabric and balance your shopping on your head.

Drcoconut I was working in an IT department when I was pregnant with my first DC. I was so tired in the early stages, I actually fell asleep at my desk

I was woken by the IT director

He couldn't have been nicer and he even offered to arrange somewhere for me to lie down.

When I was pregnant the MIL lent me a book on pregnancy she had bought when pregnant with DH. I wish I could remember what it was called, but it had a hilarious paragraph about how "many" couples found coitus interruptus to be "perfectly acceptable" as their main form of contraception. It also recommended washing one's nipples before and after every breastfeed.

IMO some of the old fashion advice is better such as bed rest for a period of time following childbirth . DS 1 was born abroad Where it's the custom Is for mothers to stay in hospital for at least 1 week following birth then you would go back to your mums home to be looked after for a month. During that week in hospital I was shown how to look after him, establish bf and got some rest . I found giving birth in the UK so totally different and much more difficult with the expectation that you should be on your feet running around as normal within 24 hours . I think baby manuals reflect the time and cultural they are written in and we we shouldn't dismiss the advice just because it's no longer fashionable

I must admit that I'm truly looking forward to maternity leave so that I can spend some time at home sewing and dressing making for my dd.

er...dressmaking. Double blush.

I have a Miriam Stoppard book which was first published in 1985. She recommends when decorating the nursery: "It may be a bit of a luxury but if it's at all possible install a small sink with running water in a corner of the room."

I cannot EVER remember thinking "God, I wish there was a sink in here" about one of the DCs rooms. In fact, remembering the havoc a toddler can cause with a sink, I am eternally grateful that I did not decide to cough up a couple of grand to obey this particular suggestion.

The only baby book I have in the house and the only one I have ever referred to is a Penelope Leach from about 1982. I bought it in a jumble sale many years ago when I was a student nurse doing my Mother and Child module, think it cost me 10p...
I have read others, I got a fair few out of the library when I was pregnant with dc1 (2009/10) but there's just something about Penelope that speaks to me - I always knew I'd use that book and kept it for years, through various house moves etc. Think my mum still has Dr Spock somewhere, I will have to ask her if I can read it and see where it all went wrong for me :)

Off to look on Amazon for that book about baby care through the ages, is it called Dream Babies?

My DD is currently asleep in a washing basket...

I had Ds in 1978, and had a book very similar, yep was told to make bottles like that, (breastfeeding was very frowned on, I had no choice Ds was in SCBU for 7 weeks)

Remember being taught all the different ways to fold nappies, and DB bringing me nappy liners from Germany, couldn't get them here.

Was told to wake him every three hours to feed him, after feeding . change and put him in his cot. (wish somebody had told him that, fed every couple of hours all morning then slept all afternoon)

It was in his pram outside tho, in all weathers

Oh and his Father wasnt allowed in to the birth until he had attended a class and seen a film about the birth.

My Gran dug out the baby book she got in the 40s when she was first expecting. She's used the knitting patterns for every child since. I spent a very enjoyable afternoon reading it as it advocated a number of things, my favourite being the benefits of tying your child to the bars of its play pen to help it learn how to sit.