I asked my grandmother what she had known about birth before having a baby and she said....

[Pruners]

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Those are fascinating stories Kitswins.

Twilight sleep....

There's a bit in that Ricky Lake documentary about that - a clip of a woman labouring under the influence of it.

Apparently you experienced your labour fully and you were usually restrained for the duration. Women would scream and howl and thrash around on the bed. The thing is that afterwards they wouldn't remember any of it.... so would opt for it again for the next birth......

Apparently it was also extremely dangerous for babies too.

My Grandmother (born in 1900) was 29 when she had my Dad, her first and only child. She was one of 7 girls, most of whom had children before my Dad was born. In spite of this she was almost completely ignorant about childbirth and was actually too embarassed to tell her own mother she was pregnant for 5 months!

She was on her own in bed one morning when her waters broke. One of the very few things she knew about childbirth was that this meant the baby was on it's way, so she spent the next hour terrified to get out of bed in case the baby "just plopped out" when she stood up! .

She eventually slithered carefully out of bed, realised the baby wasn't about to come out and in a state of complete panic, got on a tram and travelled right across Liverpool to see her eldest sister. When she arrived, her sister just put her on the next tram home and told her to send for the midwife!

My Dad was eventually born the next day by forceps delivery on the kitchen table, while my gran was under chloroform. He was delivered by the local doctor and district nurse. It was a long and difficult birth, and gran told me that before she was anaesthetised, she was was convinced the baby had died, and said the sound of him crying when she regained conciousness was the most wonderful sound she ever heard in her entire life.

Tragically, my Grandad was killed in a car accident 2 years later while they were TTC, so she never had another baby.

She was a marvellous storyteller who was remarkably upfront for a woman of her generation. I'm so glad she shared the story of my Dad's birth with me .

My mother gave birth in a hospital run by nuns fifty years ago - whilst she was in labour she started to moan and stretch out her legs - she was told to keep quiet and keep her legs shut and reminded that had she done that in the first place she wouldn't be in this fix lol

Twilight sleep is pretty horrific - basically they would give women a drug which meant they wouldn't remember what was happening for the next X amount of hours. However they wouldn't actually be asleep, they'd be half conscious at the time - so they'd be fighting the doctors and the pain of the contractions etc, so the doctors would strap them down onto the bed, gag them so as not to disturb others, and basically leave them to it in a dark room. Once they were 10cm dilated they would go in with forceps and deliver the baby. The woman would "wake up" and not remember anything. Remember at this point fathers weren't generally involved in birth and the doctors didn't tell you you'd be awake to experience everything, it was just percieved as going to sleep pregnant and waking up with a baby.

It caused huge problems with babies becoming distressed and it's also now known that it causes PTSD because the mind is unable to process the event.

I'm the youngest of five, my mum lost the first, he was sickly and then I was told that he was given a jab with a dirty needle which gave him an infection and he died a few days after being born. They just took him away, no apologies, no counselling, they just said "oh well, get on with it". They didn't even tell the doctor or hv what had happened, so they kept turning up to weigh the baby etc and she kept having to tell them that he had died.

She was pregnant again shortly afterwards and she had another hospital birth. She said she called the midwives in because she thought she was getting ready to push, and them not checking her but saying "no, no, it's isn't. You just need to get some sleep' and giving her what she said was sleeping pills, and she said that as they left the ward, the doors were still swinging as the baby slid out, and then she fell asleep.

No wonder she had the rest of us at home.

I have read the whole thread in a mixture of awe, horror and utter fascination. The things that women had to go through, I find it hard to get my head round!

We are close to DP's Grandma aged 90. She has been very interested in my pg and loved seeing all the scan pictures etc - she couldn't believe how well informed we both were about everything.

She told us some brilliant stories. She had her first child, DP's uncle in 1947 and things were very hard after the end of the war. Rationing was still in force for example. She lived on a farm and was still expected to work all day whilst pg. In fact she says you were made to hide your pregnancy by adapting your dresses etc. When her waters broke she went into a Nursing Home, as her own mother had died and there were no other women in the house.

She says it was truly awful. The Matron was an ogre! She had a little bell by her bed, but the Matron said "I'm going to bed now and don't you dare ring that bell, I'll be back in the morning"!!!! So she had to suffer contractions all night on her own! She was also told to be quiet so as not to scare the other women!

When her son was born they thought he was dead apparently as he was 3(?) months early and only weighed a couple of pounds. They put him in a drawer and when he didn't die they fed him on Nestle's condensed milk as her milk didn't come in! He's now 62 I think so it worked quite well!

She also told us about a lady on the nearby farm who had to be dragged 6 miles to hospital in labour on a sledge through the worst snow they had had in 20 years, as all the roads were closed and they were snowed in! Imagine the horror!

Haven't posted before but these were so fascinating, thought I would add some more.

My paternal Nana was a midwife in the 40s and 50s and although she never discussed her own births she was very open about other people's. She remembered the doctor once dragging in a husband to see his wife immediately after her eighth and telling him there were to be "no more" because she was in such a state. My Nana was also highly indignant that the doctors would turn up as the baby was born and claim all the glory!

My maternal grandmother was an identical twin and the doctor was on his way out when the doctor called him back for "the next one". In fact there were three, a little boy, stillborn, who had obviously never properly developed was taken away to be "examined". My grandma thinks it was her and her sister's fault because they were a good 8lb each. My poor grandma didn't find anything out until after she had her first baby because her mum died when she was a teenager and it wasn't deemed appropriate. Her uncle was a "7 month" baby in a drawer too, am amazed at all the preemies who did so well with such basic care...my own needed ventilation so I am so thankful I live in this country in this century.

My mum had to labour on her back for both me and my sister (late 70s), no choice, long labours with drips to speed things up (no wonder lying on her back). And was told off for swearing at my Dad, and the MWs fed me formula in the nursery against her wishes because I was "making too much noise and couldn't wait"; I was a guzzler and if I fussed at all when mum tried to BF they just took me off and fed me so she didn't even try with my younger sister. I think it still upsets her that they took over so much in those early days.

I think all the women in my family are fascinated by these family birth stories, there are loads more! I really have been very fortunate with my own, hope no.3 goes as positively

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My gran had my uncle at home and my dad in hospital that is pretty much all I know about the births themselves.
She has talked about how my uncle was born 2 weeks premature (38 weeks as was my dd, my ds was 37 weeks) and how wrapped up he had to be in his pram at home for 3 weeks before she was allowed to take him outside the front door.
She was sooo delighted with my scans though and my dad had the one I have on DVD on his laptop and she was in hospital after a fall and she shouted anyone over who would listen to see her future great grandson bopping about the screen.

My mum had my brother in 1969 and even then there was some doubt as to whether she was having twins or not as she was huge, brother was 9lb 3oz and my mum is a little woman.
She had me in 1979 and I was 9lb14oz, she was induced and she had all 3 of us quickly with no pain relief, was available but nobidy told her how to use it so she did without.

When her mother came to visit in hospital after my birth and my mum asked if she wasnted to hold me (weren't supposed to apparently) my Granny was scared to..my mum said what are they going to do take her off me
My GRanny was also appaled at my mother walking about very obviously pregnant in floaty summer dresses wanted her to put on a coat and stay inside more.

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Bumping this thread because it's such an interesting read!!!

I was born almost thirty years ago, at 23 weeks. My mother's GP paid her a house-visit (mum didn't think she was in labour at 23 weeks) and had an ambulance rush her to the nearest hospital. There, the staff mocked my mother, telling her she had a bout of colic. A student nurse came in and found her fully dilated. The MW said 'you don't mind if we leave this to the student nurses, do you?' but my mother was too out of it to respond. At 23 weeks and being fully dilated very quickly, she was thoroughly terrified. They then left her alone! She buzzed for their attention, and they came back to find that I was in trouble. I was so starved of oxygen that I had bad brain damage and now have cerebral palsy. Once I had been delivered, they realized a twin was also in the womb and she was delivered but sadly died less than a day later. My mother has never truly recovered from this and I have been ever horrified by the NHS for this reason.