Genealogy Chat

Yes, you're right, it was. I was just leaping back to the information about women who were on their periods not being able to prepare foods. I can imagine that it would have been awful to deal with in those times, sanitisation not being the best. My reply wouldn't have made sense, I think my brain is fried today! Regards.

Phew! for a minute I thought I was going to have go and read some Catherine Cookson again!

someone said something about the upper classes maybe having contraception. Things like condoms, caps etc have been around since Roman times believe it or not. However, it was a brave man who actually used one with his wife as it was considered that they should be used only with 'loose women' to protect against disease. Many wealthy men had a mistress which left their wife in peace. Many women died in childbirth because they were forced to lie on their backs to give birth after it became fashionable sometime in the 1700s (because a King wanted to see his mistress give birth believe it or not). There was also a lot of nonsense in Victorian times about modesty which meant that doctors (who were nearly all male) could not see what they were doing during examinations and had to feel their way about under clothes. Midwives were actually safer than doctors as many still followed country ways and actually washed their hands and sterilised any knives etc. Many women were also left with dreadful birth injuries such as fissures which caused incontinence and pain. A woman doctor in USA scandalised society in the late 1800s by offering repair operations to women with these sort of injuries. She was nearly struck off as it was considered taboo. Midwifery history is fascinating, but makes all us women very glad we did not live 100 years ago! Linda

About the taboos of menstrating..... My ex MIL emigrated to canada in the 50s. before she went, the rule in her family had always been that you diddnt bath while menstrating. When she arrived in Canada and saw the showers! (not seen in this counrty then) she couldnt resist having one. Her husband found her sobbing on the bed and asked whats wrong!...She said that she had a shower and now she would spend the after life in hell.... Poor poor woman, she really belived this. an added extra bit of onfo........ sanitry wear was the oldmans shirt tails that were cut off then you washed them....oh! yuk! Imagin them on the washing line!!! My mum told me this. Gerri.

I get very sad when I think of my great grandmother dying in childbirth at the age of 28. She died in London in 1893 and I only found out this week that she was taken back to her home village in Hampshire to be buried. Imagine the sadness of her family back home having to go to her funeral and the two little children that she left behind. Her mother had to take on the job of looking after the baby along with her own large family which included a handicapped daughter.

Talking of contraception in olden days, I believe half a lemon or lime could be used like a Dutch Cap. This was apparently used in Tudor times. It apparently also has the added advantage of helping protect against viruses such as those that can cause cervical cancer and even Aids (presumably the acid) - its a fairly common practice in some parts of Africa even today. I am reliably informed that the acid doesn't sting! Unfortunately only upper class families would have been able to afford the fruit in the first place!

Can I add my two pen'th? In Africa there is a Fistula hospital being run by a doctor in her 80s (I believe her husband died recently). The couple set the hospital up and have trained local people to do the operations. Many of the young mothers (often mid to late teens) are left incontinent after difficult labours (and are often only children themselves) and are driven out of the villages as being 'unclean'. Aren't we lucky? I have a fascinating book about the gentry in ther 1700s that includes the case of a woman whose baby died prior to delivery, whereupon the doctor dismembered it in utero and removed it in pieces!! I would not have thought that was possible but I guess when the chips are down........ The woman survived and although I am not sure, I think she went on to have other children. Victoria

Vicky 3601942, Is that what Nell Gwynne used her oranges for then??!!! Merry

Victoria, I know they did (do??) do that, routinely to farm animals if their young dies inutero..........They used (use??) a thing that looks like a wire cheese cutter......I don't think I need to elaborate....... Merry

Not just in the 1700s Victoria. My ex mother in law was a midwife in the QARNC in the 1940s/50s and she told me about the same thing. Just glad mine were born fit and healthy Sheila

It really must of been hard having a baby in those days, i have a few ancestors who died in childbirth and you cannot imagine what they must of went through. On my Harrison side they had anything between 5 to 15 children, and they were all coal miners and lived in Cottages, which wouldnt have been very big. Must of been exhausted! Yvonne

Some babies were born in the mines.....Imagine that?! I think women were barred from working underground in the 1830's (not sure if that's the right timeframe?) Merry

Born in a mine? I bet there were other strange places where people gave birth as some people even tried to conceal that they were pregnant, I guess that still happens today.

Bev, re the women giving birth in coal mines - there are some interviews with women on the coal mining history resource website http://www.cmhrc.pwp.blueyonder*co.uk/ I dont think they were necessarily trying to conceal the pregnancy, it was more likely they needed the money, so worked as long as they could. No maternity benefits in those days.

Thanks Vicky, I'll have a look.Bev

Just want to add my family story. My gt grandmother, Annie Milne, died in childbirth in Poplar in 1914. Her death cert stated prepural eclampsia in childbirth. It would have been her 9th child. My Nan told me that she had fallen down a flight of stairs beforehand. Tina