17. Lack of Food and Bad Housing.
I think a great deal of suffering is caused to the mother and child during pregnancy by lack of nourishment and rest, combined with bad housing arrangements. The majority of working women before marriage have been used to standing a great deal at their work, bringing about much suffering which does not tell seriously until after marriage, particularly during pregnancy. A very common complaint is falling of the womb. If women could be taught to sit down more when they were doing little jobs, that they very often stand to do now, I believe it would be a great help to them physically. The majority of working women do not get sufficient nourishment during pregnancy. If there is other children the mother generally takes what is left. I believe this tells very greatly at the time of confinement. I well remember the prostrate condition I have been in on several occasions owing to lack of nourishment and attention at the time. I found I could not get anybody to come into my house and do the work unless I could pay them 10s. per week; in consequence I had to take pot-luck. My last confinement I was nearly twelve months before I was able to do my duties in the home, which meant a great deal of suffering to my children, as they were not kept clean. This caused me a great deal of trouble and anxiety. I believe all this tells on the mother’s health and also the baby’s which she is nursing. I have known women, who have had the opportunity and good sense, to get all the nourishment and rest during pregnancy, even at the expense of something going short in the home; at time of confinement they have got over it quite easily, and made very little difference to them a few hours afterwards.
I believe the bad housing arrangements have a very depressing effect on mothers during pregnancy. I know of streets of houses where there are large factories built, taking the whole of the daylight away from the kitchen, where the woman spends the best part of her life. On top of this you get the continual grinding of machinery all day. Knowing that it is mostly women and girls who are working in these factories gives you the feeling that their bodies are going round with the machinery. The mother wonders what she has to live for; if there is another baby coming she hopes it will be dead when it is born. The result is she begins to take drugs. I need hardly tell you the pain and suffering she goes through if the baby survives, or the shock it is to the mother when she is told there is something wrong with the baby. She feels she is to blame if she has done this without her husband knowing, and she is living in dread of him. All this tells on the woman physically and mentally; can you wonder at women turning to drink? If the child lives to grow up, you find it hysterical and with very irritable, nasty ways when in the company of other children. When you see all this it is like a sting at your heart when you know the cause of it all and no remedy.
Wages 28s.; six children.