Calling much older mums/midwifes from bygone times - curious

[Pagan]

My Mum says that in her day (she's in her 70s), there were strict feeding times at maternity hospitals, I think 10am, 2pm and 6pm. Not sure what happened at night but all the babies were kept in the one room away from their mothers.

I was wondering what on earth happened when they were not being fed. Surely no baby was perfect enough to want to feed at exactly those times and what DID happen during the night? Who fed them then? Were the poor wee things just left to bawl until the next feeding time?

I'm just curious to know

Totally agree, suedonim.....help with the house and shopping and so on is a far greater help than the 'maternity nurses' posh mums are advised to get for the first weeks. Little babies are a full-time job to care for, but the mum can do that while someone else does the other stuff.

My SIL asked me if I thought she would need a maternity nurse when she had her twins last year - her dh was taking time off work, too. I said she needed a cook-cleaner - someone she could ask to do absolutely anything rather than a maternity nurse...you can't ask a maternity nurse to scrub out the loo or run to the shops or to cook supper. Amazingly, she took my advice (she is a sensible woman!!) and though the lady she hired was no good as a cook (bro took over that role soon enough) she was great at everything else. She stayed several months part time.

Home help,free for 6 weeks!!!? Heaven!!

That's so interesting. I mean about the effect on supply.... my nanna gave birth to her babies during the 40's/50's and mentions to me time and again that she only managed to feed for 6 weeks each time (I think particularly given what's written here that it was a fantastic acheivement!!) but I don't think she feels that good about it. She is all for "the newer way of doing things" ie baby led feeding and whatnot. She's my very own, personal 'wise owl'.

Oh yes, meant to say, the four hour 'rule' was the (enforced!) guideline for her too at that time .

What an interesting thread. My grandmother had 5 homebirths during the 30s and 40s. My mother, who was the eldest, doesn't remember any of them happening! I'm not sure whether she breastfed, but suspect she did.
My mother bf all of us but not for more than 6 weeks. This was in the 50s and 60s and I think she was probably quite unusual and had little support - her mil (yes, my other grandmother) said she thought bf was disgusting and women who did it were like milk cows! Also my mother said she was so terrified that she just wasn't producing enough for us so swapped to carnation milk(!) She also swore by the 6, 10, 2 routine, but fed in the night too. I think my mother was probably influenced by her own mother as I think bf was probably going out of fashion at that point, so wasn't really encouraged generally.
Incidentally, my first night home with ds last year was our only unbroken night's sleep in about 2 years - dd (then 20 months) was exhausted from being away from us for 24 hours while we were in hospital so slept through and little ds just slept. I on the other hand was so wound up/excited/worried I lay awake for most of the night!

My mother had all of us in the 50s and 60s, too, and never bf for more than about 6 weeks - she 'didn't have enough'. This is probably true, as she bf to a schedule without night feeds (as per instructions from hospital) and routinely topped up with formula (as per ditto). Very few women's milk will persist under those conditions.

my mum tells me that when i was born in 1972 that they were told under no circumstances to feed babies more than 4 hrly - no matter how much they screamed in between.
My Gran said when she had her babies in late 1940s early 50s they were forbidden from putting so much as a foot out of bed till the babies were 10 days old.