Wages 20s. to 22s. 6d.; five children, one still-born.
149. Every Help.
I have been in the fortunate position of being able to have every help at those times, added to which my youngest child is turned twenty-six years, and time has obliterated much that I suffered at those times. My husband was earning 9d. an hour. We afterwards started in business for ourselves.
Two children, one miscarriage.
150. “Should never have had Children.”
I have not got one healthy child among my five, not because I did not get well looked after, but they are suffering through the past generation. My first child is now a man of twenty-seven, married, but has had a paralysed arm from two years old (a milder form of which was a family trouble). The second one died. My third, a daughter, is almost an invalid, through nerves, and has developed a state of “catalepsy” whenever she is overdone. She was trained to be a shorthand typist, but is unable to follow out same, as it excites her nerves. She is now a waitress, half time, and teaches music, to enable her to keep herself. The fourth suffers from congenital heart, and is always ailing more or less. She is a dressmaker. The fifth is now nine years old, and suffers from malnutrition, and is always ailing, but a clever child for her years. We have always been able to provide everything required to keep them in good health. But in the light of the knowledge I have got since I was able to grasp what things are, I have often said I was one of the women who should never have had children, as from a girl I was always ill, right through my married life till now. I have done child-bearing, and am now in better health than I can remember. I was married when I was twenty.
Wages 35s. to 45s.; five children.
151. Systematic Preparation.
I am glad you are trying to emphasise the need for knowledge on the part of the mother, as my own experience has proved that, given knowledge as to health and the care of the body generally before childbirth, much of the evil which now accompanies this perfectly natural thing might be avoided. In my own case, having always suffered considerably at every monthly period, and not being of a particularly robust type, I made up my mind to go into training before bringing children into the world, in order not to have to pass out at the same time, and leave them to the tender mercies of others. Accordingly, I adopted a vigorous system in order to harden the body, and soften the hip and abdomen muscles, etc. This consisted of cold sponge baths, followed by certain exercises while lying flat on a mattress. Then a rubbing of the body in sweet oil. The whole was done in ten or fifteen minutes every morning. Vegetarian diet was strictly adhered to, as this produces a cleaner, healthier child. My nurse, who laughed at all my “fads,” remarked on the fact that the child had not the grease, etc., on it at birth which most babies have. A month before the time of birth, I left off all bone-making food such as bread, so that the birth should be easier, through the absence of very hard bones in the child. As I did not do my own housework, for exercise I walked twelve miles every day in rain, snow, etc. The baby was born in January, and the day before I took a ten-mile walk, had my cold bath, etc., and that day fortnight was out walking again, testifying plainly to the fact that a little care and attention and knowledge will work wonders, and the birth was a perfectly natural one.
Women make a great mistake in feeding overmuch at this time, and bringing fat big babies into the world. Mine were designedly small, but they made up for it after birth, and will compare favourably with any now. From the first month after birth they had cold baths, sun baths, wore one garment, only wear two coverings even in winter, sleep winter and summer in the open, never wear hats or stockings. Shoes are only worn occasionally, as they are barefooted in house and school. The eldest is in her tenth year, and neither have had anything but whooping-cough and measles when there was an epidemic of these, and they had them lightly.