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 think I need quotes from that happy marriage book!!! Lol

Found it! It's actually called "Every Woman's Book of Love & Marriage" and is a genuine 1930s manual, republished as a "comedy" book

A selection of quotes:

If you think, "I like him awfully but hate being kissed", think twice about continuing the courtship.

We would suggest to the bridegroom that the idea of consummating the marriage on the wedding night should be given up. The wise bridegroom may not take the final step for several days.

(on sex) On completion of the act, there comes the calmest of sleeps and you awake strengthened by the fullness of the experience [stifles giggles]

And finally, a personal favourite:

Do not be hurt if the man who swept you into his arms so lovingly one evening, only sinks into his armchair the next evening and looks as if he has every intention of staying there.
Fetch his slippers, and hurry on the supper; listen to his tale of woe afterwards or let him sit quietly reading while you bring out some mending.

[snorts very loudly]

Just found two more corkers, that I had to share. Both relate to being a new mum:

Don't let motherhood side-track you into not caring about your appearance. Baby wants to be proud of you as a mummy, doesn't he? And hubby is still as keen that his pals should see that he has married the most attractive little woman imaginable!

Don't always let your conversation be about baby. Your friends will be interested but they will be glad to see that you still want to hear about the latest fashions and the newest recipes.

May I be the first to boak, Cavemum?

I rue the day I read Penelope Leach's advice about listening to your child if they put forward a reasoned argument. Bloody DS1 (born 1992) should be a highly-paid lawyer, he became a seasoned professional at this by two and a half. DSs 3 & 4 got the standard "because I said so" (DS2 has never spoken, so not an issue)

That's mad....apart from the last paragraph. I remember going out for picnics in the park with other mums of young dc who would only talk about prams and feeding patterns, and it drove me round the bend. I remember blurting out 'So what have you seen on TV lately?' just to get the conversation onto something, anything other than babies! (I never fetched my dh's slippers though...)

In a 70s copy of What to Expect I once read that both the husband and wife should give up alcohol for the duration, and if offered a drink the husband should reply
"No thank you, we are having a baby"

One bit of Penelope Leach's advice I never forgot was - if your child falls into a stream or river, don't jump in after them, they'll be washed away from you. Instead, run along the bank until you are downstream of them, THEN get in the water and wait for them to be washed to you by the current.

I'd never have thought of that and hope to God I never have to use it.

My mother mocked my copy of What To Expect because it contained advice on what to do if your child's limb is severed, but I loved that even in the most drastic of circumstances it gave you simple prescriptive advice to follow (999, frozen peas, pressure as I recall).

Their advice on what to do if you are alone and birth is imminent starts "take a deep breath, you can do this"

A First Aid book that my dad had in the 80's had advice on emergency childbirth and if you had done all the boiling of scissors etc that it advised, the baby would be born, taken to hospital, registered, baptised and weaned by the time you would be ready :o

Nothing turns on a husband like slippers and the sight of someone mending...

...still wading my way through the thread. Snorted at, "the first few days after childbirth can be very difficult for your husband and the advice to cook him his favourite meals

The baby in front of the fire between two bricks reminds me of something my mum used to say about her brother. He was born in 1939 a bit early and small. Apparently he was wrapped up like an Egyptian Mummy and one thin layer was taken off each day until he was deemed to be cooked.

Fire thing is like how we used to put early lambs in the oven.

We did it again later on but for different reasons.

IMO modern parenting books are also full of shit, a different flavour of shit certainly, but still shit.

I had ds1 in the 80's. I was 17 (disclaimer for not being on gransnet) We could smoke in the dayroom even when in labour and got kept in for 5-10 days after a vaginal birth.They took the babies to the nursery at night.
It was fab
By the time you went home you were ready to return to work

I have an updated Miriam Stoppard book, 2005 edition I think and it still mentions having a sink in baby's room. The section on working mothers features pictures of a woman sewing clothes .

That said the medical side (baby development, body changes etc) was really helpful and up to date.

my mum gave me some pages from a book that was given to her mother (it was pre-war)

it said to breast feed babies every 2 hours and 2ce in the night, and even said what times would work best.
it did the first 18 months, and the feeds got further apart as the baby got older (2 ½ hours apart at 6 weeks etc)

Ah yes, smoking in pregnancy. My mum was advised to give up smoking when she had me in 1969 but, as the danger of passive smoking had not yet been recognised, my dad continued to smoke heavily in our house, her work colleagues smoked at their desks in her office, and even her GP smoked in the consulting room while carrying out ante-natal checks. As soon as I was born, my dad bought her a huge packet of cigarettes to celebrate, and she duly smoked them in her hospital bed. By the time I had DC1 in 1989, smoking was no longer allowed on the wards, but there was indeed a smoking room from pregnant and postnatal smokers. As a non-smoker, I was amazed to see women taking their newborns in there (although the midwives did remonstrate with them about this).

ds2 was born very prem and was in hospital for ages.I expressed milk for him to be ng fed. One of the mw told me not to worry if i expressed too much as it could always be used to make a milk pudding for the rest of the family

Fuckwittery, "until the milk is flowing the baby should be fed at least every 6 hours" that frequently, eh?

I know that colostrum is liquid gold and all that but surely a new baby should just, well, keep at it and bollocks to the sugar.

I would have thought that the more a baby nurses the more colostrum and eventually milk the mother will produce. In fact, I think keeping babies from nursing on demand in the first few days is guaranteed to seriously inhibit milk production.

which then proves to the woman that she "can't" make enough milk and that it'd be better on formula.
:(

I'm sure this is all very amusing but just remember this; our species has survived ice ages, plagues, world wars etc etc all without contemporary parenting. This generation is probably the first one to have a lower life expectancy than it's predecessor ?

I'm sure this is all very amusing but just remember this; our species has survived ice ages, plagues, world wars etc etc all without contemporary parenting. This generation is probably the first one to have a lower life expectancy than it's predecessor ?

loppy, um, I don't mean to be rude, but ... how exactly do you think plagues etc work? I mean, the life expectancy of babies born in, say, 1348 was considerably lower than their parents' generation, wasn't it?!