10 Best Way To Surprise Parents With Pregnancy News

Best Way To Surprise Parents With Pregnancy News in 2023

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

What it was like for a Woman to Be Pregnant in the 1950's

If you were pregnant in the 1950's, you were administered harsh drugs for labor and remained in the hospital for a week. You were given strange warnings by your doctor and even saying the word "pregnant" in public was considered crude.

A urine sample would be collected and it was sent to a laboratory. In the 1950's the urine was injected into a rabbit and if the rabbit died, this was a positive test for pregnancy. This is where the old saying, "the rabbit done died", came from.

No one would suggest that you should stop smoking or even drinking if you where pregnant during this decade. You would sit at the doctor's office and smoke while waiting for your turn to be seen. Your doctor would often be the one to offer you a light for your cigarette as you dicussed your pregnancy in his office. It was your family medical doctor who would deliver your baby in the 50's; there were no specialists to go to for a routine pregnancy.

A pregnant woman was treated as if she was frail and would be prescribed a lot of bed rest. Warnings were given out by your doctor not to reach for things over your head. It was thought that this activity could cause the umbilical cord to wrap around the unborn babies neck. You were also told not to sit on any cold cement, such as a front stoop because it would cause hemorrhoids.

If you gained too much weight during your pregnancy, you were probably given a diet pill. Many women of this decade were given the harsh diet pills referred to as "black beauties". A previous miscarriage would put you in the high risk category for another pregnancy. For this reason during this decade the medication Thalidomide was given for a woman in this category. This drug caused many severe birth defects in children, such as missing parts of their limbs at birth.

Pregnant women did not go to funerals due to superstition. This was cross cultural and it was considered in very bad taste if a woman went to a funeral while they were, "with child". In fact, the words "pregnant or pregnancy", were not spoken in public. The woman was, "with child", "in the family way", or "expecting".

You were pampered throughout your pregnancy and up near the time your baby was due, you were suggested to do a "practice run" to the hospital. Hospitals were few and far between in the 50's, and most people lived quite far from one. You were told to time the ride to the hospital that you were expecting to go to when you were in labor. You were to have a bag packed and ready by the door. In that bag, you should have a weeks worth of clothes with you.

Yes, this is correct, a weeks worth of night gowns and clean underwear you would bring with you because that is how long you stayed in the hospital in those days. If you went past your due date the doctor would suggest your husband take you for a ride in the car down a bumpy road. This was to induce labor.

When finally went into labor after the many months of pampering, you did it alone. Your husband and family members were not allowed anywhere near you until after the delivery and you and the baby were cleaned up. In the 1950's you were given drugs during labor. You were either but into twilight sleep or knocked out completely. The medical community did not believe that women should experience any pain during child birth.

In this era, most people smoked cigarettes and you were supplied an ashtray and smoking material while in the hospital. Breast feeding was not recommended as much as it is today, so most babies were bottle feed. The baby stayed in the nursery and was brought to the mother just for feeding. Once the baby visited with its mother just long enough to have a bottle, they were whisked away back to the nursery. The mother was the only one in the room when the baby came in for its feeding. Fathers and family members could only look at the baby through the glass window of the nursery.

Once you came home with the baby, someone, such as your mother or mother in law, would stay with you so you could rest and they would take care of the baby. This went on for a few weeks. Due to the possibility of germs, usually no one was invited into the house for the first few months after the baby's birth, except your husband and the person staying with you to help.

The baby would not be allowed out of the house until it was baptized back in those days and the mother would enjoy a recuperation period of approximately a month. This would entail having the baby tended to and the housework done by the person staying with you.