Pregnancy advice in 1979?

[catsofa]

I'm pregnant and my mum is no longer with us, so I'm going to miss out on hearing about her own pregnancy with me.

I'd like to read/hear about what advice was given to pregnant women at the time in the UK, 1978/79. Was anyone here pregnant then? Know anywhere I could find any old books or information?

[mathanxiety]

I have an American cookbook from 1976 that has a large section at the back dealing with feeding of babies, including 'formulas' for making up diluted condensed milk according to age of babies, adding more or less sugar, more or less water, etc. Apparently exH and all his siblings were fed this way, and they needed orange juice as newborns too, presumably because they were constipated, but possibly because vitamins were the holy grail back in the 50s and early 60s.

[queribus]

I had DD in 2005 (yes, 2005), but not in the UK. I saw a consultant every month who was obsessed by weight gain. I was only allowed to gain 10kg and was weighed at every meeting. No antenatal classes, just one session with a midwife who reeled off a list of what the consultant 'preferred' - induction, epidural, forceps.

At 32 I was a geriatric mother and the consultant went on endlessly about the risk of Downs Syndrome for someone of my age.

There were 11 people in the room when DD was born. I was threatened with a section if I didn't push harder. Partners were allowed in the delivery suite, but kept out of the way.

I stayed in for 6 days. DD was taken away at night (until I complained a lot), and I was actively discouraged from breastfeeding. My consultant told me, in English, that I didn't need to as we weren't "in Zulu land" - I kid you not!


Smoking and drinking were tolerated. Weaning at 4 months was encouraged. Babies had to be virtually smothered in all weathers. I was told off quite often by older people when DD didn't have a hat, gloves and snowsuit on in June.

After all this, DD had a broken collarbone at birth because of the forceps delivery and needed physiotherapy. We had weekly sessions with a very stern German lady who pulled DD about like a ragdoll. Without fail DD would pee on the table and the physio would complain. She was a few weeks old without a nappy - of course she was going to pee!

And I ended up back in hospital with an infection due to a retained placenta. Terrible experience.

[bookmole]

I had my first babies, undiagnosed twins, in 72, and my next lot from mid '80s to early '90s. And the differences!

In '72, there was one appointment for ante-natal check-ups. So you turned up, and hoped you were early in the queue, else you were in till (sometimes) after lunch! Thank god that had changed by the next time I was pregnant.

Breastfeeding was not an option. I was just prescribed tablets to dry up my milk, and shown how to mix the formula. Managed the '80s kids just fine.

There were no scans - at least, not for all. Ear trumpets for heartbeat, and hands to guesstimate size. One friend I made in ante-natal had scans cos she was tiny and her baby was huge. Well, until it was born, they thought it was huge... She was 5 foot nothing, weighed as much as a wet dish rag, and her daughter weighed 4 lbs exactly and healthy as fuck.

When the 80s rolled around, and I had stitches (again) I was told not to have salt baths, cos they didn't work. Oh yes they do, I thought, and had them anyway.

The worst thing about the '70s, looking back on it now, was how little you were told, and how much like cattle you were treated.

[bookmole]

Just remembered, with my DS3, born in '91, I was told to put him down to sleep on his back. Which I did. But he used to flail his arms around in his sleep and wake himself up. Every two hours, he would wake and up then demand food. I think I was going gradually insane, when DH, not so au fait with the back sleeping thing, put him down on his front and he slept for 6 hours. Front sleeper from that moment on, now 23 and healthy.

[YokoUhOh]

My mum had me in 1981; she was under consultant care because my older brother had died at a day old (Potter's Syndrome). She was given meptid having expressly stated that she didn't want it, and was violently sick. With my brother (born '82) she had asked for her waters not to be broken, but the midwife went ahead and broke them.

She breastfeed me until 10 months and is still under the impression that she had to give up due to falling pregnant ...she has, however, admitted that she wishes she hadn't weaned DBro off boob at 7 months (he didn't sleep for four years). We were Penelope Leach babies and DM was considered quite hippy-dip, although she considers me far more so (natural term bfeeding, co-sleeping, BLW, slings etc).

[MrsGiraffe12]

My mum had me in 86 and I was a premature baby (14 weeks early). Because she was so ill and I was too she states she was told her breastmilk wouldn't be good enough and so I had doner breast milk. And her and dad wernt allowed to hold me for nearly 2 months or even touch me.

When I came home at 16 weeks old they were seen every day and as I was still so tiny they carried me in their arms in the car as it was deemed safer than a carrycot or car seat as I "didn't move around as much"

[Guiri]

This is really interesting - I was born in 1969 in St Helier's Hospital in Sutton (still there AFAIK). My mum was sent there as a high risk pregnancy (older mother, previous ectopic pregnancy so massive scar), so maybe they were a bit more advanced than others.

She was: advised to give up smoking (which she did), and also strongly recommended to breastfeed, (she says the midwives swore blind that as well as being healthier, it was better for mum as breastfed babies wouldn't get colic ) She did say very few on her ward did b/f though.

She also got taken into hospital as an emergency and given an intravenous drip of brand-new Rubella immunisation after she was exposed to someone with German measles (she says she was laid there all prepared on the bed and they rushed up in to the ward with it after it arrived express in a van!). I think you get good care in London hospitals, bet that wouldn't have happened in rural Wales where we are now . . .

[tipp2chicago]

I was born in 1979. I wound up in a frog plaster from my armpits to my toes due to my hips. I didn't fit in the carrycot on the back seat anymore, so my parents got a neighbour to build a wooden box to put me in. They put in some foam to make it nice and soft, and I rattled around in there for the nine months or so in which I was in the plaster.

[midnightexpress]

wawabear - my friend was told not to stop smoking in 2000 by her doc because she was finding it so stressful to give up completely!

When my mum went into labour with me in the late 60s, my folks left my 2y-o brother asleep in bed while dad drove mum to the hospital. She says 'well, he came straight back!' because of course fathers weren't required at the birth.

At about the same time, my cousin, who was born in October, was given pureed Xmas dinner on his first Xmas, aged all of about 2 months.

[Mooycow]

I was a 1967 baby, DM was encouraged to smoke as it would guarantee a small baby I was 4lb 1oz.Was prescibed guiness or stout to drink for iron content, Stayed in bed in hospital for 6 days , saw me only for feeding, she did manage to breast feed initially, but was told as small baby i needed formula milk as more fat in it, smoked in hospital in bed, was given guiness in hospital to boost iron levels,
DB was 1970 home birth, it wasnt the done thing to go to hospital,no pain relief at all, and my DF still missed it as he took their heavily pregnant neighbour shopping as she couldnt manage on her own?

[SasBel]

Hi Catsofa,

Hope all is going well. I was born in '78, my mum was 21! normal then. She had chronic morning sickness with all 3 pregnancies :( She had a long labour, dad was allowed to attend my birth, very modern! She fed me herself for 6 months before abruptly stopping and switching me on to solids and formula. She was in hospital for 2 weeks with me, a month with my sister and mere week with my '80's baby brother. She was advised to rub whisky on my gums when I was teething, and was recommended a small stout daily to help her iron levels both before and after my birth.
Glad things have improved! Good luck.

[keffie12]

I was a 60's baby. Makes me wonder how we ever got this far in the world with the advice back then and it would have been worse before.

When I had mine in the 80's it was so different to when I had my 4th in the 90's the advice given out.

By the 90's you couldn't eat eggs, liver and smoking by then was a big no no.

Nothing much said about smoking in the 80's either. There was the family room where Mom and family visiting could smoke.

It is a strange old time for us having our babies back then when we look at how it is today. It can certainly put you on a guilt trip when you look back at how it was then, to now

[CheerfulYank]

I had stirrups with both of mine- 2007 and 2013! This is the US though. And not flat on my back, propped up sitting. :)

[Matergeminarum]

I was expecting my first baby in December 1976 and chose a central London teaching hospital for the birth. At the 12 week booking in clinic I was given a routine appointment for a 20 week scan (unheard of at our local hospital).
I went on my own in July 1976 (husbands and partners didn't go along in those days). I was told I was expecting twins! No more details available at 20 weeks in those days. At the next hospital appointment at 28 weeks they asked me to go and see sister at the desk and arrange to be admitted the next day fora month's bed rest! What a shock. Apparently they admitted all mothers expecting twins from 28 weeks to 32 weeks for bed rest on the NHS. Those were the days. I had no complications whatsoever, with low blood pressure. They asked me to take part in some lectures with the students as I had no problems. Our identical girls, born five weeks early, will be thirty eight in November. Oh, they were in the Special care baby unit for a few weeks and the 0NLY safe position to put them down was on their tummies .... Fond memories of that time.

[TurtleBeach]

I was born in 1979 but my mother is not the type to ever discuss those matters so I'll probably never know the details. I haven't had children of my own but my sisters' pregnancies haven't exactly prompted a flurry of bonding and sharing experiences - it's just how she is.

The closest we have come to her talking about pregnancy in the 70s was when she cooked SiL a special meal - liver pate followed by fried liver and onions, because it is best for baby. She was most put out by SiL's polite refusal and still mutters about how today's doctors must be wrong because she ate liver constantly when pregnant and we all thrived!

She certainly found pregnancy to be quite shameful. I remember once as a teenager, finding an old family photo where mum was visibly pregnant (and wearing some kind of floral tent). She went ballistic, said she ha no idea the photo existed and ripped it up. Even now she voices her dislike of women these days "flaunting" their bumps and she has refused to look at scan pictures and she does not want to see my sisters' insides - disgusting apparently.

I know that I was born prematurely and taken to an incubator. She also once let slip that I was born through CS which rather surprised me but refused to talk more on the subject. Very bizarrely, I remember watching Neighbours when Daphne's baby was in an incubator and she was distraught. That was when my mum got really tearful and said the same had happened to me and she could understand the worry and the emotions. Clearly those emotions shut down in the intervening 20 years as when my DNephew was born very prematurely last year and was in NICU for a month, mum thought SiL should snap out of it and be grateful for the peace and quiet.

I know she drank Sweetheart Stout throughout her pregnancies on doctors orders but I also know that she gave up smoking the day she found out she was expecting me and has never smoked since. I'm surprised to read that this was not standard back then and quite heartened that she must have made this decision for herself, based on what was best for us.

She was in hospital for two weeks, including Christmas and New Year and the babies were kept separate and fed by nurses most of the time. She talks about that Christmas dinner at a long table in the ward as being one of the best ever, even though the food was rubbish.

We were formula fed and she still doesn't agree why SiL would put herself through bf.

Dad definitely wasn't present at any births.

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

I have had babies in the 80's 90's and in the last couple of years the differences for me were huge. All the babies before 1999 were delivered with me flat on back,legs in hanging straps (I know that's not the word but I'm having a brain block) if you didn't have the baby on demand forceps were used and the forceps were not considered a big deal like they are today it was almost like the hospital I went to did not factor in that they hurt. And nobody explained anything at all to me.after each one I was left in the room by myself to wait for the woman who would clean you unusually a bed bath but without talking to you

The stays after tended to be 8-10 days visiting hours were very strict even for dads no all day visiting or none dad visits for 24 hours after delivery,they did demos of everything help was readily available everything the baby needed inc clothes was provided.the midwives could visit you every day at home until around day 20 but it tended to swop to HV at day 11.

Not very many people I knew thought the strict visiting was a bad thing and it surprises me how many of my friends who loved the strict visiting when they had their babies get all shitty and cross when those children are now having their own and they request a bit of rest time before relatives turn up.

From 1999 onwards short stays mobile active labours or water births more information but less help and support,

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

I forgot to add my mother has never to even once discussed or made any reference to her pregnancies or labours,you would think we just magicked ourselves here fully grown

[LaVolcan]

Back in 1978 my hospital prided itself on keeping women 'fully informed'. Well, they didn't do this in a lot of cases, but note that it's telling you what will happen - not a discussion between you and your care givers.
We accepted it too - that was the way it was.

Over the next couple of years the big issues seemed to be saying no to routine episiotomies, shaves and enemas.

[Darksideofthemoon88]

Tipp2chicago: What on earth is a frog cast???

[callamia]

Frog casts are for babies with hip dysplasia - dislocated hips usually from ball and socket joints not quite developing as they should. Baby is enveloped in a player cast, with their legs in 'frog' position for a number of months while it corrects.

[Darksideofthemoon88]

Oh good grief - do they still do that? Sounds awful!

[BertieBotts]

Pavlik harness these days. Don't know if it's a new thing or just a new name.

[Mumstudentbum]

Mum had me in 84. She was two weeks over so induced and had epidural. They told her not to stop smoking as it would be too stressful and was in hospital for 10 days. Dad wasn't allowed at the birth so gm stood in.

Mum bottle fed as doc lifted up her breast and said 'it's just water give her a bottle' how the hell he knew just by that I don't know. She was given tablets to dry milk water up.

I was brought home in a carrycot on back seat and slept in my own cot from day one. There's a photo of me in mums arms at 3 weeks old and dads stood behind her with a cig in his mouth! I was often left to sleep on the sofa and put out in the garden by my nan for the morning for fresh air lol

[vezzie]

all this being put out in the garden was probably a good thing with all the smoking going on.

[Darksideofthemoon88]

I don't see anything wrong with putting babies out in the garden, assuming you're nearby and can keep an eye on them! My parents did that with me - apparently I used to like watching the birds and I plan to do the same with DD when we move to a house with a garden.