I have been in bed four and five weeks, the longest nine weeks, with my legs, after baby was born. At the present time of writing I am in bed now, and have been nearly three weeks with the same thing. Now the change has come. It is three years since I had an attack.
I think I was getting about 26s. off my husband.
Thank God, my husband has been very good in all my sickness. If he had not, I could not have lived through it. I feel sure I should not be suffering now, if I could have had money to pay to be looked after then. Of course, I am better off now, but it is too late.
Wife’s allowance 26s.; nine children and one miscarriage.
72. Loss of Strength.
I was married at the age of nineteen years. My boy was born when I was twenty-one years. Although during pregnancy I realised I was to become a mother, I had never been taught what I should do or should not do during that time. One of my sufferings during pregnancy was due to over-sensitiveness. I have thought, especially since hearing Mrs. ——’s address on “Moral Hygiene,” what a comfort and help it would have been to me, had the above subject been taught when we were young by school-teachers, or had our mothers realised the need of explaining nature as a necessary form of education. I do hope that the community will soon realise how necessary it is for boys and girls to have knowledge of this important subject.
When I was confined, the doctor and monthly nurse were both with me. A few hours after the birth of my boy, when the nurse brought me some gruel, I sat up in bed to eat, but was soon told to lie down again. I do not know whether it was due to that act of ignorance, but I suffered with my back for a long time. My boy when born was a big and lovely baby; he is now eleven years old, a picture of health, standing 5 feet and ½ inch in his stockings.
I felt very well while lying in bed after my boy was born. It was when I got up and dressed the tenth day I realised my weakness. I was glad to lie on my back in less than an hour after.
My husband had been out of work for six weeks during the time of pregnancy, and again another six weeks when baby was four and a half months old. I have mentioned the above fact, for I am sure it was partly due to that that I did not regain my strength for years after. I fed the baby on the breast for thirteen months. By that time I felt so low that it was an effort to walk upstairs, and was glad to sit on the top stair to pull myself together; so I went on until I got really ill. I was under the doctor’s care for three months. Meanwhile I had had several attacks of inflammation inwardly, but the last attack was so severe I myself was frightened. The doctor then told me it would be some time before I regained my strength. I certainly gained strength after that illness; part of it, I feel, was due to rest.
Wages 21s. to 31s. 6d.; one child.