Your mothers' take on motherhood.

Why indeed!?

Luckygirl13 That's even worse than me being told that my dad said that they could always try again when mum had another girl. Apparently she cried with disappointment.
Why did they need to tell us?

My mother told me she tried gin and a hot bath when she found herself pregnant with me .... not a great start!

She told me my birth was an awful never to be repeated experience and she didn’t! When I found myself pregnant with my DD I was terrified!

That’s so sad, Snorkel. I recently came across an old newspaper death notice for an older brother of my father-in-law, who died as an infant. I wonder if DFIL was ever told about him.

We were born in 1960 and 1961. We were never told about David. We were sat at the dining table and my father mentioned David and we said "who". This happened when my brother and I were teenagers.

Myself and my younger brother were born in hospital. In 1963 my mother went into early labour. My father called from a phone box. The ambulance went to the wrong address. My 23 year old father delivered the baby boy, David. The ambulance took my mother straight to hospital as she had postpartum haemorrhage. My father was left holding a very sick baby who died a few days later from a hole in the heart.

Apparently I was breach birth and quite jaundiced. Went into an incubator and my mother didn’t see me for three days. Explains a lot about our relationship tbh.

Dad was working away and was told to return home as I was on my way. He had to drive through the centre of Manchester - pre M6 - and claimed to be doing 50mph along Picadilly...
He arrived home shortly before I was born and the 'midwife' (Mrs Evans
from next door) was more concerned about making sure the father to be had a cup of tea than my imminent arrival!

Mum (small, ginger haired, pale skinned, lots of freckles) went to the local maternity home but they couldn't deliver me so sent her to Manchester Royal and I was breach and she said the Doctor was the biggest, tallest, African man she had ever seen (back in 61) and he was so kind and had her laughing so much she never forgot him.

I was born in the local maternity hospital just after midnight. The doctor had to be sent for and she arrived wearing an evening dress and evening gloves!

*labours

When my mother had me (in hospital) her mother and aunt were the first visitors. Just after they arrived my father came. The sister wouldn't allow him into the ward because my mum already had 2 visitors and that was plenty. He had to wait until the next day to see me...
I had 3 backache labour's. They were horrendous - dreadful pains down my legs as well. The doctor used forceps before the epidural top up took effect and I thought he'd torn my body apart. Later, I discovered that he'd ripped all my posterior muscles.

My mother had traumatic home delivery in the 50s and was rushed into hospital hours after I was born with very bad haemorrhaging. I suspect she had placenta praeva, which I had with my first. So no siblings for me but a succession of relatives who looked after me, when we came home.
It didn't put me off wanting a family and I have two children and a 1940/50's name after the daughter of her main help an aunt called Doris. My dad put his foot down on the Doris which I always thank him for but the one they gave me certainly puts me in a bracket.
She kept nothing from me so I always knew all the details.

I'm the eldest of 3. In the 50s you had your 1st in hospital and, all being well , subsequent babies at home.
Unfortunately, although only 8-6 , I got well and truly jammed and was dragged out with forceps , badly cutting above my eyelid.
This difficult delivery resulted in Mum having to have my brother in hospital. He was 2 weeks early , only 7 pounds and popped out easily .
So , third time round, allowed a home delivery in a tiny downstairs flat , Mum tried to deliver my 9 pound baby sister. This bigger baby got stuck again.
Our very young and very inexperienced GP arrived with the forceps and told Dad to choose which one he saved !!!
Thankfully both Mum and baby were safely delivered by this wonderful man who became a lifelong family friend , even visiting my dying Dad regularly some 60 years later , when they were both old men !
My sister was delivered with rather a pointed head as a result of this procedure.
When 4 year old me met her I immediately wanted to call her Noddy because of her pointed head !!
My parents decided to veto this and thought Gillian a better choice.
Probably wise.

Juggernaut Interesting that we both have hip and pelvic problems and our babies were back to front. I don't know if the babies caused the problems or the babies were that way round because of the way we were shaped. I never started having problems until my 50s so many years later.

@Chestnut,
My son was facing the wrong way up too, and I also had a very long and painful back labour. It wasn't helped by my midwife 'clocking off' to go on holiday, and her replacement being a very young, newly qualified midwife who had no children of her own, but insisted that the baby was fine and dandy. Eventually he was a forceps delivery, at the last attempt before they were going to do an emergency c-section! He had such a poor, squashed up little face when he eventually emerged! Now he's the image of the actor Tom Burke, 'Strike'!
I've suffered with back and pelvis problems ever since, but I don't blame my son......much!
I would like to time travel back and give that young midwife a dressing down though, stupid girl that she was!

My mum told me at a young age that I looked just like my dad when he came home from nights

This thread prompted me to spend an hour or so researching where I was born, an RAF staging post in Mauripur, Pakistan, so thanks for that.
My mum told me little about childbirth, my daughter was born in hospital, a birthing chair, in three hours, I think I stayed in a couple of days. My son at home, an hour of labour, he too had inhaled some rubbish which was suctioned out, an ambulance was outside and my GP attended. Neither were needed, two midwives were fantastic, my son and I were in the bath about an hour after delivery. For both I had gas and air.

My mam used to be a nurse so she told me a lot, which I was grateful for.

When I had my 3rd child my partner came in just as he was being born and passed out. They had to call for extra staff to deal with him. Oh and he banged his head as well. Typical, he ended up with more attention than me. I had a 4 hour labour with that one.

My Mum told me she held onto the back of the bed and took the skin off her fingers. I was a forcep birth. My brother was a breech. I popped out my first baby in 6 hours and my 2nd in 4 hours. There is no accounting for it at all.

In my Scottish childhood most babies were born at home. I can say so with full confidence as Daddy was a GP. He and the midwife were both present having seen the expectant mother regularly during her pregnancy and would unfailingly have booked her into hospital if they thought a normal delivery was unlikely. The case Daddy took with him to confinements was twice the size of his normal case, and everything in it from forceps to needles was boiled up in the kitchen when he came home again, whether the instruments had been used or not. The towels were changed, and the rubber sheet and apron sterilised.

I was born in hospital nine weeks premature, which came as no surprise to my parents, who had lost my brother seven hours after birth two years prior to my arrival.

Most healthy women having a baby, or twins, did so at home. Usually only women like my mother who had problems carrying a child to term, or those who were Rhesus negative, or Postive but married to a Rhesus negative man went into hospital. Plus naturally women with such narrow pelvises that a caesarian was indicated.

One of the local midwives was famed for being able to turn a breech presentation round at the start of labour so the baby was born head-first without her needing to put her hand inside the mother. Regularly either the midwife or the doctor had a finger in along the child's neck holding the umbilical cord away so the child was not strangled.

Absolutely nothing, a subject that she never discussed, as I went on to have 3 children, it was only later that I discovered that I had been the child of her cousin who couldn't keep me due to her family and my 'parents' had been married for seven years and childless. Aunty Mary, as I knew her paid for my education and upkeep, sent me a crisp ten shilling note every Easter, she even paid for my wedding.

We were all born c section and my mother elaborated on it.

My brother was born in 1936, myself in 1939 and my sister in 1946. My mother told me that she knew nothing about how the baby would arrive. She asked her mother, and was told, "Just do what the midwife tells you." She never told me what the experience was like, but I remember waking up and hearing noises downstairs, when my sister was born. No-one had told us that another baby was on the way. I went down to see what was going on, and was firmly told to go back to bed by a strange woman. Funnily enough, I can't remember meeting my sister, or seeing her when she was a baby.

I wasn't told anything about the 'facts of life'. No doubt all hell would have let loose if I had become an unmarried mother though. Luckily I was a late developer, and a virgin bride. Not many of them about, these days!

When I did become pregnant my mother was fascinated by the whole process, especially the books about how the baby develops, and giving birth. Despite having 3 children of her own she knew almost nothing about the process.

My first experience of childbirth wasn't pleasant, though the baby weighed only. 5lb 15oz. I needed a lot of stitches after a long labour. The following 3 also took their time about coming out. My easiest delivery was the second one......our adopted daughter. Not a twinge, and pure delight!

My DD had a traumatic birth, with an emergency Caesarean when my GDs shoulders got stuck and she stopped breathing. Luckily all turned out OK, and her brother arrived 2 years later with much less fuss

I think that women, these days, are experiencing more difficult births, and unnecessary Caesareans, due to the shortage of midwifery staff.