My feelings during pregnancy were just like those of Mary in Hall Caine
(“The Woman Thou Gavest Me”). My mind was full of love and my time of
preparation for the coming life within me. I worked very hard during
the time of six children, knitting stockings and making clothes for
those I already had, so my little one could be well nursed. Three are
suffering from consumption, and one from curvature. When I had had
six I never murmured, never once said I had enough, and did not want
more, but after the birth of my last one I changed, because I could
not nurse it and never carried it about. I do not blame my husband for
this birth. He had waited patiently for ten months because I was ill,
and thinking the time was safe, I submitted as a duty, knowing there
is much unfaithfulness on the part of the husband where families are
limited.
What is necessary for mothers is State aid for every child she gives
birth to. If this is necessary for the aged, it is more so for the
mother with the children.
It is quite time this question of maternity was taken up, and we
must let the men know we are human beings with ideals, and aspire to
something higher than to be mere objects on which they can satisfy
themselves. Near my home are two sisters with ten months and eight days
between their ages. Two doors from my own are four sisters, all living,
and they all came in two years and fifteen days--the second born eleven
months after the first, and thirteen months after twins came, and since
then three more have been added to their number. None of them are old
enough to work, and you will understand the position of the parents,
who are good, deserving, well-meaning people, when the father, being
out of work through the war (painter), has had to go labouring.
_Wages 30s.; seven children, two miscarriages._