What was childbirth like 100 years ago?

[GracieNotes]

This may seem like a strange question, but I've been reading through my grandmother's letters and there is one from 1930 where she is writing to her husband (in another country), describing having their first child.
She was in a private nursing home in the UK, and writes about being made to take castor oil to hurry things along and also not being allowed to get up from the bed (before or after the birth!)
The really interesting thing is that she describes how the midwife/doctor had to deliver the baby for her in the end as she was struggling (very big baby), and she was seemingly unconscious. Does anyone know if this was normal or what would have been administered. Chloroform? I googled this and read about something called 'twilight' births, where mothers were given morphine and another drug, which took away the pain but also made them forget the details of the birth (so they were,'t unconscious but very strongly sedated). But I'm not sure this was in use in the 1930s still.
If anyone has any insights, would love to hear!

Pushing on the abdomen would not do this. There are cases where it makes sense to do so - applying fundal pressure is required during the second stage of labour on occasion.

What a mad post.

Birth, even straightforward, intervention-free birth, is not for the faint-hearted.

Sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes there's medical error.

But sometimes the procedures you mention happen as a response to an emergency & ensure the survival of mother & baby.

I most certainly wouldn't have wanted planned sections for my births, unless medically indicated.

I was going to mention that mad men episode, she has to shave too, and spends a while in the hospital without visitors for the germs.

Not quite 100 years ago but the 'Call the Midwife' books are interesting.

There's a reason why churches have a special service for the live north of a child:

Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his goodness to give you safe deliverance, and hath preserved you in the great danger of child-birth; You shall therefore give hearty thanks vnto God, and say.

Birth not north

When I was preparing for my VBAC I read a hypnobirthing book and there was quite a bit about how birth was in the 1950s in hospitals where the expectation would be mother in stirrups, episiotomy and forceps was a routine procedure for everyone. Shaving and enemas were also routine. The author argues this is rarely needed as there is a fetal ejection reflex so even if you're not actively pushing the baby will be born.

Stays in maternity hospitals were about 10 days post natally and usually baby was just brought in for feeding. But they did teach you how to change a nappy, wind them, bath them etc though. Someone I spoke to recently who gave birth in the 1980s talked of the midwives visiting daily for 2 weeks after birth.

There is a bit in the first series of Call The Midwife where Jenny is shocked that they still have glass enema syringes. Including a spare incase the first one breaks - what a horrifying thought. Last week's episode from 1969 they offered the mother an enema so they were obviously in routine use for a long time.

I had a homebirth with shoulder dystocia. My midwives were immensely skilled and DD was born safely (albeit in need of a little vigorous massage at first) with no ill effects to either of us. She experienced no physical or neurological damage. I didn't even tear despite her weighing 10lb and the... very hands on approach required by my midwife.

I was actually told, by medical staff in the hospital when we got taken in to be checked, that our outcome may well have been less good had I had that birth in a hospital.

I am thankful for the skill of those women every time I think about birthing my daughter. I'm still in touch with both of them.

Most births happened at home.

In the 1920's only 15% of births happened in institutions.

I should imagine that most births were easier than most women have today, but some were very very very very much worse.

Maternal mortality was about 4 in 100 births until after WW2, which is awful.
:-(

I would not rely on the majority of hypnobirthing books for historical accuracy.

There's a lot to be said for approaching birth in a relaxed & confident way. Some of the hypnobirthing approaches are positively unhelpful and written by women with no or limited medical training.

They still offer enemas in Germany!

My mother told me that her grandmother had no idea where the baby was going to come out until it actually started to. The nurse started tying rags to the headboard for her to hold on to: she thought they were going to tie her down and that the baby was going to come out of her bellybutton.

My DM had me in the mid-60s. It's amazing how little information she was given and how little she knew about what was going on. She knew I was a breech presentation, but wasn't told she'd need a c-section, just told to go to the major hospital (20 miles away) rather than the local maternity hospital as soon as she went into labour.

She went into labour on her due date, was driven to hospital in the early hours of the morning, and whisked straight into theatre for a c-section under general anaesthetic. Her incision was made vertically, not the neat little bikini line incision these days. I was taken to special care and she didn't see me for three days. At one point during her hospital stay she got brought the wrong baby from the nursery, she tells me I was much better looking than the one they gave her!

When my sibling came along four years later, DM wasn't given the option of another c-section. She was induced two days before her due date and had a VBAC. She says it wasn't painful, it was just hard work. I suspect she was given more drugs than she thought she was.

And postnatal fundal massage is a thing - I nearly pushed them off me!!

I was actually told, by medical staff in the hospital when we got taken in to be checked, that our outcome may well have been less good had I had that birth in a hospital.

I'm really glad you'd such good care in a worrying situation.

But really, how could anyone have known that the outcome may have been less favourable if you were in hospital? Why should have been?

It is wonderful that your baby suffered no ill-effects. However, if there had been any deprivation of oxygen, for example, there would have been no immediate intervention available & a certainly worse outcome for the baby.

My DMiL had her first three babies in fairly twilighty NHS circs early 1970s north of England, went on to become an advocate for gentler births, La leche league, water births, homebirthing etc etc largely because that had been so traumatic. Forty years later it still made her cry and sounded awful. No consent, no information, no choice. There is still an awful lot of work to be done but in general I don't think it is a systematically atrocious as it used to be.

I gave birth in 1985 and they wanted to shave me ( my partner had already done it for me). My waters had broke at home.. he drove me to the maternity hospital.. l only was given gas and air.. but had an easy labour ( 11 hours). She was only 6 pound but still needed and episiotomy .
I had to stay in for 10 days because we wasn't married and classed as a single mother.. we had been together 11 years ( l was 26) owned our own home .. inherited it.
Had his Mum n my mum for support.. but nope l had to stay in.. l exclusively breast fed and my baby was only one to put any weight on.
2nd baby in 1993.. no offer of shaving.. gas and air only ( was offered epidural) 7 hours labour.. 6 pound 13.. no episiotomy.. still not married then..bigger new general hospital.. wanted to send me home 6 hours later.
So only eight years different but two completely different experience.

@Backinthedress me too! Dd2 had massive shoulders, got stuck during home waterbirth but midwife did a bit of up-down traction (bye bye coccyx, hello baby) and some vigorous rubbing after delivery and dd2 was absolutely fine, still got massive shoulders which currently help deliver deadly wrist-spin bowling. Midwife also said that if I'd been in hospital there would likely have likely been at least episiotomy (I asked what other outcomes might have been if traction hadn't worked) which on top of scarring from dd1 would have been difficult and i suspect they wouldn't have talked me through it as much as mw did with traction. It felt like we were a baby-delivering team, rather than a patient and a medic.

Because I had two massively experienced highly trained midwives who were used to and prepared for managing complications 'naturally'. They also had resuscitation equipment.

If i had been in hospital I would have had the divided attention of one midwife who was also run ragged with the other women in labour she was responsible for. She may not have been so experienced at managing complications such as shoulder dystocia. According to the HCP who said this, the chances are they may have tried to push the baby back in and done a crash c section.

I appreciate we will never know, thankfully, what my outcome might have been in hospital. I just found it worth mentioning that the hospital staff themselves were impressed with the skill of the midwives at managing that situation in a homebirth.

They weren't NHS midwives. I paid for them privately because I had been so badly traumatised by my first, hospital birth.

Yes! DD has massive rugby playing shoulders!

My midwife got me on my hands and knees first. That didn't work, so got me on my back for a nice McRoberts manoeuvre - knees up by my ears (gave xH something to do, keeping my legs up there), her hand inside me, push baby back a little and turn her, then I push her uphill with all my might. If I hadn't known and trusted my midwife I'm not sure I'd have been able to do what I did, or let her do what she needed, but I did trust her. She got my baby out who is now a tall and beautiful girl with a mean right hook if her brother annoys her!

We should start a club x

Also yes the Midwife visited every day for two weeks.
Checked you and the baby in the 80s.. laid off a bit in the 90s.
Told you off for using wipes.. it was cotton wool and warm water for cleaning baby's bum.
I took no notice.
She did use to take my excess milk for the incubator babies.. l was like a fire hydrant .

I wonder how many people born in that era were actually 'swapped at birth' with another baby! And how many may have found out through genetic hereditary testing.

I had daily midwife visits for the first 10 days. Would have been longer except I discharged myself because they missed mastitis, gave very conflicting advice and chatted sh1t. I had 6 of them and 2 students in 10 days. Lots of chat, far less do. Mid 90s, SW London. When dd was born I said no more than two could visit and I expected clinical advice, limited personal opinions and some basic dignity.

The first one who was very rough went on and on about sex and contraception. I said I didn't wish to discuss it. At which point she took her left elbow in her right hand and started waving in back and forth accompanied with the words "if you don't do the pelvic floor exercises now, this what your man is going to say the sex feels like" I found it brutalising.

That's so interesting. I had dd2 at home but midwives strongly advised me against having ds at home because he was measuring large (born nearly 10lb) and they terrified me into a hospital birth with talk of shoulder dystocia and saying it was a medical emergency that wouldn't wait for an ambulance transfer and couldn't be resolved at home.

A great aunt gave birth to her first baby all alone (would have been in the 1920s). I often wonder how she knew what to do as she was very young. Not so much the birthing (although that would have been traumatic) but with cutting the cord and afterbirth. She had been a farm worker so must have seen animals born which might have helped I guess.