I have been reminded how far maternity care and perception has come.  I am in the search for a couple vintage sewing patterns.  In my search I have come across maternity sewing patterns circa 1950’s.  It is amazing how far we have come from minimizing our swelling bellies to now, showing them off.  Not just how we dress ourselves, but in every area.  It’s amazing to think women smoked and thought nothing of it.  Feeding your baby formula was seen as a status symbol.  Men weren’t allowed in the birthing room and twilight sleep was a popular form of pain relief from childbirth.  Thankfully times have changed!  We now celebrate the pregnant silhouette.  Our partners are allowed to support us during childbirth and even catch the baby.  Unmedicated birth and even home birthing is making a comeback.  The biggest thing, we now have more choices and the freedom to choose what we want.

One of my favorite books is called The Best Loved Poems of the American People.  It is a compilation of poetry with a copyright date of 1936.  I recently came across a poem I had to share.  It is fascinating to see we have come full circle in our infant care.  Another interesting point, this sarcastic poem is written by a man.  Here is your laugh for the day.

The Modern Baby

“The hand that rocks the cradle”–but there is no such hand;

It is bad to rock the baby, they would have us understand;

So the cradle’s but a relic of the former foolish days

When mothers reared their children in unscientific ways–

When they jounced them and they bounced them, these poor dwarfs of long ago–

The Washingtons and Jeffersons and Adamses, you know.

They warn  us that the baby will possess a muddled brain

If we dandle him or rock him–we must carefully refrain;

He must lie in one position, never swayed and never swung,

Or his chance to grow to greatness will be blasted while he’s young.

Ah! To think how they were ruined by their mothers long ago–

The Franklins and the Putnams and the Hamiltons, you know.

Then we must feed the baby by the schedule that is made,

And the food that he is given must be measured out or weighed.

He may bellow to inform us that he isn’t satisfied,

But he couldn’t grow to greatness if his wants were all supplied.

Think how foolish nursing stunted those poor weaklings, long ago–

The Shakespeares and the Luthers and the Buonapartes, you know.

We are given a great mission, we are here today on earth

To bring forth a race of giants, and to guard them from their brith,

To insist upon their freedom from the rocking that was bad

For our parents and their parents, scrambling all the brains they had.

Ah!  If they’d been fed by schedule would they have been stunted so?

The Websters and the Lincolns and the Roosevelts, you know.

In 1350 women urinated on wheat and barley seed to see if they were pregnant.  She could urinate on the seeds for several days, “If the barley grows, it means a male child. If the wheat grows, it means a female child. If both do not grow, she will not bear at all.”This was the first recorded urine-based pregnancy test. In 1963 this method was tested with “modern” medicine and 70% of the time it worked!! Can you believe how smart those Egyptians were! Geesh!

In 1976 the e.p.t (early pregnancy test) was FDA approved. By the end of 1977, it was ready for consumer use. In 1978, it was advertised in various, major women’s magazines. An article in Mademoiselle’s April issue, stated “For your $10, you get pre-measured ingredients consisting of a vial of purified water, a test tube containing, among other things, sheep red blood cells…as well as a medicine dropper and clear plastic support for the test tube, with an angled mirror at the bottom.” HUH? Serious? Sheep’s blood? i have been inspired to go on a mission to talk to women my mom’s age to get some more scoop on this one! The test took two hours, and was more accurate for positive results (97%) than for negative (80%).

It amazes me to think not until the 80’s was there really the pee on a stick kind of test. It really wasn’t even that long ago women got pain relief during labor. Maybe soon they will invent a machine to quickly get your pre-baby shape back without the pain of a strict diet or personal trainer. i can see the pitch line already, “Place the belt around your abdomen every time you are breastfeeding and within 4 week you will look even better than before you became pregnant. It’s simple, easy, and very effective.”

If you want to read the comprehensive version of the history of pregnancy tests, go to A Timeline of Pregnancy Testing.  If you are a woman who experienced the sheep’s blood version, i would love to hear about it!