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?

Early 80's baby here and apparently my mum was also told to drink stout to get her iron levels up. Wonder when they stopped telling people to do that?

Didn't know red wine had more iron in it than Guinness....interesting, will bare that in mind for next time, better than the rank iron tablets I had to take

DB was born 81 me in 85. Big differences were that with me mum was not shaved or enemad and had an epidural with me.

However, my dear departed dad was in the room for both. Amazing as he couldn't stand hospitals. With my DB he was holding up my mums leg for the birth. On the other hand with me I made such a speedy appearance despite being breech that my dad was still sitting in the corner eating his hospital provided cooked breakfast when I shot out.

The only really worrying thing was that my mum was congratulated on her baby boy when I was born. This baby boy is 37 weeks pg today. The doctor was shot down pretty quickly by the midwives for that one!!

Red wine was apparently rank unless super expensive in the 70s-80s. Unless someone could pop over to Calais! Possible stout was just cheaper and reliably tasty (for beer fans).

Hospital provided a breakfast for the Dad, wow! My DP was lucky to get a cuppa while I was on the ward for a couple of days after DD's birth last year. One of the caterers that came round would sneak him a cuppa as well but the other one just ignored him as it was for patients only. How times have changed eh!

My mum swapped to smoking menthol cigarettes because they were healthier than her usual B&H. Left me with no ill effects but I was a dedicated smoker from age 13 until I conceived DD1 at which point I smoked one last fag, put it out after two puffs and never touched them again...because it was healthier

My mam had a prescription for Guinness from her pregnancy with me 76/77. When I had DS 12 years ago, the advice was to drink under 10 units a week, with red wine a stout being better!
She breast fed me, but got stick for doing so. Also, as a insane old hippy, she tried to procure breast milk from other friends to 'share the goodness' (antibodies, colostrum???), thankfully with no success. When she didn't want to use formula when she went back to I work, as it was unnatural, she was told unpasteurised goats milk was fine. Or maybe she made that bit up as an excuse to keep a goat colony on a good life sequence small holding...
I got several lectures when feeding DS about making him hold out between feeds (he went 3h so hardly a perpetual feeder). I never bothered to ask how one did this as I suspect the answer was to put them down and leave the room.
Thankfully my mam never smoked, not sure how I would have survived otherwise, being a mere 4lb2 as it was. I was weaned onto runny eggs at 3 months.
I was dressed in clothes made from curtains and old sheets. Dungarees were de rigeur and clothes apparently unisex, apart from the single party frock...
I survived, and was a strong enough child to give my brother hell :D

And I forgot launching myself across the room to stop my mother from feeding 6mo DS neat whiskey when he was teething! ('Never did you any harm!')

Cuppachaplz I was out on goats milk as I had dairy allergy and skin problems, my mum had to drive miles to a goat farm every week, this was 83

Oh yes, and back in those days they wouldn't confirm a pregnancy until a woman had missed three periods (so 12 weeks+). Which is probably one of the reasons my mother wasn't remotely sympathetic when I mc at 7 weeks

Sorry but this is bollocks, they had home pregnancy tests by the last few years of the 70s, you needed to be about 2 weeks late and you added urine to a little test tube and got a brown ring in the bottom if positive. A couple of years later they had the POAS type which could work almost as soon as you were late, obviously they have got more and more sensitive since.

memphis I get that! however is didn't have any allergies. This was instead of formula so she could go back to work when I was 6w old.

Home tests available, but uber expensive. My mam and all of my aunts said they had never used one. I remember a girl at school (early 90s) taking a sample to chemists for testing as it was half the price of a kit.
My mam once told me that under 8 weeks wasn't a 'proper' miscarriage. 10 of my mcs were between 6 and 8 weeks, wonder how many women were left in diagnosed and potentially untreated back then...

Also born in '79, and was my Mum's 4th baby. She was so, so grateful for the policy changes that had come in that year, which meant she could hold me straight away and keep me with her until we left hospital. She didn't get to hold my brothers or sister for more than a day, and never even SAW my sister before she was whisked off - can you imagine?!

She said it was a good birth and the people around her were wonderful at every step of the way. Yay 1979!

Just out of interest, those who had a vertical CS - have you had issues subsequently with core muscles or stomach muscles?

My mother has complained all my life about having to hide her "fat stomach", which is a quite specific complaint about lack of muscle tone. I've never known if this would be regarded as an insoluble problem by a physio.

My mother had me at 28 weeks by crash CS after months of bed rest because of placenta praevia. She didn't bond with me, and had PND that became chronic depression, due to all the usual issues of "just getting on with it", no support, not seeing me for ages or touching me until I was allowed out of the humidicrib >6 months later, no breastfeeding, no help at home with toddler, newborn, husband demanding dinner on the table, etc. SHe had a shocking time and has resented me for it all my life.

I'm still getting the blame for her "fat stomach" 38 years later, and I know that if I ever have a kid, I won't be able to talk to her about any of the experience at all. The fact I've waited this long to not have kids, has a lot to do with all her unresolved issues that started in pregnancy .

kiri my mum had two C sections, both with vertical scars. She is really fit and healthy and although she has never had a six pack or anything, she does pilates regularly and I'm not aware that she has any issues.

It's probably just down to how individuals heal!

My mum gave me her pregnancy book from the 1970s, which includes patronising reassurances about how 'the woman' can go back to work if she and her husband want, provided her job isn't physical, but my favourite is the bit where it advises you to pack make-up and stationery in the hospital bag, as why shouldn't you look attractive after giving birth, and don't you know there will be lots of letters to write?

When my mum gave birth in mid-1979, she says there was another woman in there effing and blinding about the doctors who had failed to spot her twins till the birth. She didn't really want another child, let alone two. There was also the woman whose husband had to be physically pulled off her after attempting coitus in the middle of the postnatal ward only a day or two after his wife had given birth.

I agree the prolonged hospital stay with stricter visiting hours was probably good, though. I'm dreading the postnatal ward - the one at my local hospital sounds like hell :(

thanks revolting for the reassurance - have always wondered if I unfairly thought some of the whole palaver was just my mum being individually unlucky in her own circumstances, or if the palaver and its sequelae were all actually things that happened to everyone...

Revolting my list from the hospital mentions make up "if you usually wear it", hairbrush and mobile. Apparently on there as mums requested the reminder laSt year ... 1st snap or relatives visiting many women appreciated having something "normal" vanity wise.
I guess even more so if (as was the norm in 70s) a perfectly straightforward birth kept you "in" for up to 10 days and there were no mobiles ... more visitors, and letters would be the norm!

Oh and has anyone read "First time parent" ... which when it comes to work, reverts to being about how because the author couldn't bear to go back to work, this is/should be the default. With some token shocked mentions of how some MEN also go part time or sahd! And one (of over 10) case studies where a woman admits enjoying work. Really in an otherwise non contravening book. In current print!

I was born 74, my mum had pre-eclampsia so was on bed rest from 7 months and I was about a month premature. 30 hour labour, breech birth, no pain relief - must of been horrendous but she never gave me the details until after I had my own DDs. Not sure about the posters saying their mums were told it was OK to carry on smoking. My mum is a life-long smoker but has always insisted that she did give up for both her pregnancies as everyone knew by then that smoking was dangerous.

I had mine in the 90s in the US and I was flabbergasted by my mum's questions during pregnancy and in the early days of caring for a newborn. Mum's questions all started with 'Are you allowed to ...?' It was hard to explain to her that (1) my doctor didn't give me a list of rules, and (2) I myself didn't feel obliged to do or not do anything he suggested -- and it was always a suggestion, with information leaflets and his own thoughts about the research and the exhortation to do what works and whatever I thought was sensible and was comfortable with. (He saw a lot of crack mothers in his practice and I suppose anyone who wasn't a junkie was fine in his books.)

My mother grew up in a culture (Ireland) where 'The Doctor' was God and he knew it -- and it was nearly always 'he'. The doctor she went to (my sisters and I were all born in Dublin in the mid 60s) used to focus particularly on her weight gain. She was 'allowed' to gain very little, she claims, and he apparently used to pinch her as well as weighing her carefully to check that she wasn't gaining too much . Mum was able to wear her pre pregnancy dresses within about two weeks of giving birth. This was a desirable outcome of pregnancy, because what husband wants to see his wife looking like a blimp in her pregnancy clothing for one day more than he is forced to..

Despite not gaining enough weight, mum managed to breastfeed me for a few months, but both of my younger sisters had a goats' milk formula as they showed signs of allergy and eczema, plus mum actually ended up with a net loss of weight after her pregnancies with them due to the bullying of her doctor and her own eagerness to comply with his rules. I suspect mum already had issues about weight and it wasn't just the doctor giving her the problem.

This got chopped off somehow:
My cousins were born in the 70s in a hospital famous for the callous attitude of staff to patients. My aunt fought hard to be discharged before her week was up so she wouldn't have to put up with the misery of the post natal ward any more after two high forceps deliveries and stitches left, right and centre. She hadn't managed to eat much after either delivery as the food was set out on a table in the middle of the ward and the hungrier and fitter women knackers from the area surrounding the hospital ate most of it and then took the meat portions from other plates to give to their own families when they visited. My poor aunt would find picked over plates when she managed to drag herself to the table. She came to us for a while to recover. No breastfeeding per doctor's orders...

My parents were allowed to take me home from the hospital on my mum' slap in the car. No car seat or anything.

My mum had her last baby in 1989 but when I rang her to say I was pg - 4w 2 d - she said 'But how do you know ?'

I think she'd forgotten about HPTs for a minute!

squizita sure, it's more that this book was written in 1971 by a male gynae and asks indulgently 'Why wouldn't you want to look as smart as possible?' etc.

I love reading stuff like this! All the advice given back then and all of those kids seem to have turned out fine, right?! Other things I've read are funny because it's so far from how things are like today!

My mum was pregnant with me in 1991, so I'm off to ask her what advice she was given to compare it to this thread and to then compare it to what I was told when I was pregnant in 2012! In fact, my mum had her first child in about 1979 and her last in 2005 (Yes, really!) so that would so interesting to talk about!!

I would love to look at pregnancy magazines throughout the years! How fascinating to compare it all and see where new guidelines came in and any new research and new information and how that changed practises!

I've just seen this linked from Facebook and thought I'd add my mum's experience - as a few people have already said, the mother's ideas or feelings were not really taken very much into consideration and lots of things seemed to happen because that's how it was done. My sister was born in 77 and my mum asked if they would refrain from giving her pethidine as during my birth she had had a nasty reaction to it, being very sick and somewhat delirious during the birth and having a hard time the first few hours of my life dealing with the after effects (and mainly just passing out asleep all the time). She had a very high pain threshold (didn't even realise she was having contractions till the ante natal midwife told her) and felt she could cope without pain relief. But no, she was told that of COURSE she needed it, everyone had it and she should trust the doctor, so ended up with another birth the same as before. She was delighted when I told her I was having a home birth with DD2 as she would have loved to herself and again was told it wasn't an option. Oh, and she was aghast when I said I couldn't eat liver in pregnancy as she had been urged to have it once a week to combat her anaemia (possibly accounting for her children's great love of liver!)

The whole thing about the baby been taken to the nursery was not manadory ir a rule. It was however the norm. She had all of her dc with her as newborns (the first being in 79 the last being in 90) - she just said no to any of us being taken to the nursery (the nursery was still there in 90 but no longer the norm and few mothers used it).

My mom said neither ff/bf were encouraged/discouraged by hcp, however, general consensous was that ff was "better" because it had been scientifically made. She chose to bf all of us but stopped when problems came (so a few weeks to a few months - all of us were fed for different times), then she moved to ff.

She was glad by the time dc3 & 4 (me) were born that they had stopped the enemas and shave - she felt that was the worst bit!

Oh and in 79 she got an epidural and said it was heaven.

She actually went private in 79 as she didnt trust nhs after drs were adamant shed misscarried and she was certain she hadnt (obviously she hadnt hes going to be 35yrs old this year).

Also she found the idea of dh at birth a strange one - she doesnt see why any woman would want them there. Apparently she didnt even tell dad she was in labour, just told him once we were born. - it was the norm then for men (other than drs) to stay well away from the delivery room, mom doesnt think it was a rule but she didnt know a single woman who wanted dh there, so they werent. Things were apparently changing by 90 with some dhs being there.

Just thought I'd add...when we said "enema" in the early 70s, it meant a soapy water enema. Dispensed from a bag via rubber tube. Ouch! You were told to hold it in for as long as possible (ha! about ten seconds!) and then go to the loo where you'd have horrible cramping and violent diarrhoea. I remember the midwife shouting through the door to me, telling me to hurry up and come back out. Hmm...not possible. So glad that's all in the past.

In those days, no-one was allowed to sit on top of a bed - infection control - and babies certainly weren't to be changed anywhere but their crib, so you had to learn to hold the baby in one arm while you changed the crib sheet with the other. Everything, including baby gowns, maternity pads, and so on, was supplied by the hospital.

We did bed exercises, including pelvic floor ones, in the morning, under supervision, and after lunch, we were expected to nap - curtains were drawn and no speaking! If a baby cried, a nurse would take it away during the nap time. Food was quite good and we were offered hot drinks and biscuits more or less all day. No television of course, so it was actually quite restful.

Morning rounds for doctors were strict. We had to be in bed before they reached our ward; beds were neatly made up by the nurses beforehand and patients had to be sitting upright for inspection. The staff spoke over us and rarely directed a question at us.

When I had my first ('74), I was in a ward of 6 patients, and I was the only one breastfeeding. This seemed to annoy the staff, and a nurse would draw the curtains around me, and bark "3 mins each side" followed by "5 mins each side" and so on, as the days passed. When my time was up, she'd march back, open the curtains and make sure I wasn't sneakily going beyond my allotted time.

It's a wonder I ever managed to breastfeed, but by the time my other three arrived I was a lot more bolshy and did it my way.

My oldest was born in 2008 and I was quite grateful to the midwives who offered to take her to the nurses station for a few hours so I could get some kip "while you still have the chance"