Preganancy and childbirth now compared to your experience.

I think it’s definitely harder and care is worse. I had my children in 1975, 1980, and 1983. I felt by baby no 3 the care had slipped a bit . In 10 days with the first , 3 days with the 2nd, 36 hrs with the 3rd and had a post partum haemorrhage after the 3rd also. Midwife came to the house and treated me and told me off for going out too soon.

By the time my daughter had her twins in 2009 postnatal care was awful , they expected her to manage 2 babies after a section and when we came to take her home (we were visiting at discharge time ) they said there were no wheelchairs for us to use (3 days post op) .

I was so mad I had a stand up row with the sister and said she wasn’t going anywhere until I found one! I roamed several floors before I found one and took it back to her ward. We kept taking her in extra food because the portions were pitiful , she was starving feeding 2 babies who were both normal weights.

Nowadays you hear of mothers dying, babies dying or damaged, its appalling , for a western country we should be ashamed

My children were born in 1974 and 1976.

Seven days in hospital with both, should have been two with second baby, but kept in as I developed a fever.

Looking back, I felt I had excellent care, decent food, enough staff, sensible visiting times (1 hour in afternoon for family, then husbands only in evening for an hour). Far better than the world and his wife at all hours like nowadays.

When I hear about how it is now, I feel very grateful I gave birth 50 years ago.

Perhaps someone on here will know more but I do wonder if separating midwifery training as opposed to it being an add-on after SRN training has had any effect on care standards. I assume someone somewhere has researched this?

i seemed to cross over somewhere. when i had my first in 1986 i had to be shaved have an enema which nearly killed me with contractions! i would never want to go through that again. the labour was traumatic but I stayed in 7 days during which i was shown everything including bathing baby. when i went out despite a few stitches I felt quite good. first time to be dressed as i had been in bed not being dressed.
second baby 6 weeks early and my care was sort of alright. no enemas etc just had the baby. no incubators and they said she was so ill i was told to just hold her and enjoy time with her. late husband was gone to his sisters for the night she was born just before midnight no mobiles etc in those days. no staff came to check on me but at 6 in the morning a nurse came in and was astonished to see was still with us. i was told to have a shower had not had one since giving birth 6 hours earlier. when i came back my baby was gone i was hysterical and eventually a nurse told me an incubator had come free in the intensive care so she had been put in there, I was transfered to one of three rooms further down the corridor, this hospital has gone now, i stayed in there 3 weeks until i went home. my husband did not drive then so it was train everyday to see me and baby having to bring our other child as my late mum was working. talking of mum i was really worried about going into special care for the first time and my dear mum took a day off work to go with me. i think she was in about two weeks after i went home. we visited daily and she is now a healthy girl born 1987 and now a staff nurse

1972: Queen Charlotte's: 10 days as inpatient; brilliant care

1974: Queen Charlotte's: 5 days as inpatient: not such good care.

1975: Queen Mary's, Roehampton; 7 days as inpatient; good care.

Charlotte's was very baby orientated and, basically, blow the mother!!

Mary's was the reverse - mother most important, waited on hand and foot and let's all go to a sherry party with the doctors and nurses every evening!!! I discovered meanwhile that the baby was turning blue with cold!! No babygro and no blankets!!

The Mary's daughter has three children. The first, born at King's College. An eye watering 12.5lbs. Left in womb for too long, with the inevitable results. He ended up in an incubator but OK now. Because of the history with the first born, Caesarian advised for the next two. They clocked in at 12lbs and 11.10 respectively. Thrown out of hospital in 24 hours. This can't be right, surely?

Like the previous poster, very glad that I had mine i the Seventies. There seemed to be more care then. And, no, I do not think that the university route is the right way for the nursing profession.

Mine were born 69 73 and 76 I had an enema and was shaved for all of them also told to have a bath I can’t explain how awful the enema for my son was it was very messy and that’s putting it tactfully. I was in hospital 10 days for all of them when I’d of much preferred to go home it was 1976 the hot Summer. They woke you at 5am breakfast at 6 cereal and toast 6 mums to a ward. Nowadays mums are lucky if they stay in for 6hrs.

My last was born in 1997, and there definitely was pram and pushchair snobbery, and designer baby wear was in evidence by that time.

I’m not sure that the childbirth experience for me was that much different to now. I knew I was expecting a boy from very early in my pregnancy, as I had chorionic villus sampling to test for Downs due to my age. I didn’t have a baby shower, but neither did my daughter when my GD was born.

I bet there are as many different experiences as there are Gransnetters with children though. One thing that sticks in my mind is taking my newborn in his navy convertible pram/pushchair, dressed in dark checked dungarees, to the supermarket for the first time, and seeing another mum with a baby about six months old, fully kitted out in white hand crocheted bonnet, matinee jacket, dress and bootees, in a white pram too, and thinking how different we were.