To wonder how we got having a baby years ago.

[IsItSummerYet2018]

This is totally light hearted.
But reading some people on other sites/ threads/forums saying about things for example : perfect prep machine for milk.
Saying how they couldn't live without it. When its 3am boiling up a kettle is a faff etc.
Don't get me wrong it is and time Consuming when you have a crying baby and sleep deprived.
However they haven't been around forever and everyone just got on with it before hand.

please note I'm not Having a dig it's just a general wondering

Can anyone think of anything else that we have now but didn't before... But just can't live without?

There is a lot on here about making lives easier. However when my mum had me she was kept in hospital for a week, taught to feed, bathe, etc. Now you're lucky if you're not kicked out in less than 24 hours, still sore and shell shocked.

Yep crunchy so more did than didn't.

I had a twin tub 20 years ago living abroad, they're still normal in some places for some inexplicable reason.

I got a Hoover twin-tub in 1968 when I was expecting my third. It was wonderful!!

"How long ago was it the norm not to have a washing machine? I'd bet more households had one than didn't even 40 or 45 years ago, and most did by the 80s..."

My mum didn't get an automatic until the late 80's, twin tub until then. I'm 45.

As it happens my mum has a book that was HER grandmothers. Something like "how to be a good wife and mother" some stuff is not that different to what we do now (I remember being a teen and reading it and being surprised that even then - 1900ish - depilation was a "thing") but some of it is utterly shocking given what we know now - especially the various highly toxic "medications" recommended for fairly mild discomforts like hiccups

I don't think the pressures/stresses are more/less for different generations - just different. We get rid of one pita thing and give ourselves another

I spend a lot of time with my mum now that I have 4 month old DS and from what I can gather, she is impressed by non-hideous maternity clothes and our microwave steriliser.

She thinks the Next to Me cot and Sleepyhead were just invented to make money (because he doesn't sleep in either of them but probably wouldn't in his big cot either). She is very cynical about the Wonder Weeks app and thinks 'leaps' were made up because nobody could face the truth that sometimes babies are dicks

I honestly don't know if there were less pressures then or now. It is easy to look back at the past through rose tinted spectacles. And it depends very much on your personal situation. For example a lesbian with a kid has a way easier time now. As do parents with children with some disabilities. It is in reality so variable. So I know the kids in my family had more opportunities than kids my generation who were on FSM. The next generation got free access to music lessons, trips, etc all paid by pupil premium. We got FSM which was very helpful, but nothing else, anything else had to be paid for, and our parents did not have the money.

If you want to know how hideous maternity clothes, google what Princess Diana wore. Even hers were awful.

While I'm of the generation that was vaccinated against polio and similar I of course grew up with friends older siblings and relatives that had been infected and were in some cases visibly affected.

When I was born there was apparently a scare around the whooping cough vaccine (similar culturally to the mmr scare) but I was still vaccinated as my mother had witnessed 2 of her cousins have it they'd both died as a result.

I think a big problem now is that some members of younger generations not having that experience think that these type of illnesses aren't that bad. So they don't truly understand why vaccinations are so important.

My mum made all the bottles in advance in the morning.
Told me to do the same when I had my little one recently enough. I did.
Only realised afterwards that it’s not really the done thing anymore. Still not sure why. Think perhaps 2 babies died from bacteria within the last 10 years or have I got it all wrong. Anyway my preschooler has survived to tell the tale.
Wet wipes. Best invention ever. Though probably not from an environmental perspective.

Oh god yes - even in 2000/2001 when I was pregnant with dd it was MURDER getting something to wear in an office job! It was still very much flouncy floral crap unless you had ££££ to spend

I managed to find 2 pairs of trousers that I rotated and bought tops in just bigger sizes from "normal" non maternity ranges

I think the pressures on my mother and many of her generation were huge. My father was away fighting for six years, while she coped with air raids, being bombed out, evacuation, the Battle of Britain overhead, rationing, freezing winters with inadequate fuel and the final trauma of the return of a deeply damaged husband and a fractured family. I find it amazing that she coped as well as she did.

Liquidiser for when weaning. Car,travel cot, sleeping bags, acrylic/cotton clothing able to tumble dry. Disposable nappies. Prams able to go in car boot. Nurseries, Calpol,plastic plates for toddlers. The list is endless. Isn't this a good time to be alive.

My mother had a full-time, live-in maid.
I feel very deprived.

And pay her no mind when she tells me how hard it was back then. What, playing tennis with your NCT friends whilst the maids played with all the babies on the lawn?!

Meat.
I used to work at a carvery type place on the weekends and the amount of meat I'd see people having and still whinging for more! I'm veggie but everybody seems to be eating loads of meat. Like 4-5 bacon rashers, 3 or 4 sausages plus a few slices of black pudding isn't considered too much on a breakfast. I think I'd hurl tbh but it wasn't all that long ago that that would've been close to a weeks worth of meat for a lot of people.
I know my nana (war baby, was 9 when the war ended) used to use 1 kilo of meat per month between herself, husband and 4 children. That's quite impressive imo but I do wonder how on earth many would cope if we suddenly had to cut down on meat consumption as a nation or world.

Satnav!!!!

I got married when I was 7 mths pregnant in 2003. I was very very 'neat'. I couldn't get anything wedding dressy (I think you can now) so went to Harvey Nicks to get a lovely dress preparing to pay any price. I asked a lovely manager if she could show me where the maternity wear was, she told me they didn't do it. I asked if they did baby clothes and when she said yes, I asked where she thought babies came from...

Mairead - brilliant! What did she say?

My DMil remembers having to boil up the nappies in a copper. I used reusable at least some of the time but I didn't have to do that! She commented on it so often, I think the nappy boiling scarred her for life!

I had mine only 3 and 7 years ago. I pre prepared three bottles in the day and left them on the side and fed at room temp then however many needed at night and kept in bedside table at room temp. I had 2 c sec and both were used to room temp formula in hosp so couldn’t see s reason to start heating when at home?

Eeanne, I think maybe my daughter in law is following a particular method a, maybe Someone Ford?

Gina Ford is British Don’t blame America for her!

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina_Ford

I had DS1 in 1995. My pregnancy office wear was from Next I think. At any rate it was similar to my non maternity office wear at the time. Dark knife pleated skirts, similar to those recently fashionable, and standard office shirts. I also had a gorgeous party dress from John Lewis maternity.

Mine 34 and 32 terry nappies for the first disposable for second, i was never told to put them in their own room they were in with me until about a year. I also made up 8 bottles at a time and kept them in the fridge and warmed them up in the mircowave

completely agree with sci fi and battleax. Emma just made a joke about breastfeeding - lighten up!

Disposable nappies 😁👍

I had my first baby at age 21 in the U.S. My family were all in England so I had no help. My husband was at Uni and also working. He was hardly home. I also had an emergency C.Section with complications afterwards.

There are no HVs in the U.S. I had no advice and to make matters worse, I had never even held a baby until I had my own. I did have the Dr. Spock's Baby and Childcare book but I sort of figured out most things out on my own as I went along.

I breast fed, marched around with him in a baby back-pack thing, took him on long walks in a stroller and made him sleep outside on the balcony.

I decided to make his baby food and fed him things like mashed bananas and ground nuts. He thrived. He slept on his belly because I thought if he threw up in the night he could choke on it if he was on his back. I think Dr. Spock said that too. Can’t really remember.

We were flat broke so I took him to an inner-city (ghetto) Pediatrician at a free clinic. The young doctor was amazed how healthy he looked. The other babies in the waiting room had snotty noses and were bundled in thick blankets even though it was summer. She asked me how many ounces he was drinking and I told her I had no idea because he was breastfed. There wasn’t even a place on her forms for breastfeeding!

The next time I took him to see her she asked what I was feeding him and I told her he was still BF and now on things like ground nuts and fruit. She asked me if I was concerned about allergies and I told her I never even thought about it. I remember she was impressed with him. He was very robust compared to the other babies there.

My next son was born in 1988 and I also fed him ground nuts as his first solid meal. Neither of them have allergies of any kind.

I remember reading in my Dr. Spock baby book a mother should trust her instincts, so I did. He also said babies are pretty hardy. They must be because mine survived me, lol