I am afraid the information I can give you about myself is not much,
as I have been able to have the care and attention not attainable for
many working-women. My first baby was still-born. This was really
brought about by ignorance during pregnancy in trying to open a very
stiff window, causing a strain, and also causing the cord to become
twisted round the baby’s neck. Fortunately, I was able at once to
receive medical attention, and when the child was born I had to have
two doctors and nurse, chloroform, etc. Doctors both say I should have
lost my life also if I had not had the attention I was able to have.
The other two children were born under quite normal conditions--the
symptoms of sickness, cholic pains, etc.--but I am glad to say I have
never suffered from varicose veins, perhaps due to the fact that I have
always been able to take rest during pregnancy.
My mother had thirteen children, and, as far as I can gather, suffered
terribly at these times, because when a woman brings up ten children
to full age she has not much time to rest. I may say one of hers was
still-born, the other two dying, one at the age of nine months from
vaccination, the other at three years and a half from concussion of the
brain.
Mother died at the age of fifty-two years from Bright’s disease,
brought on, I believe, from excessive child-bearing, and the doctor
said every organ in her body was completely worn out. My mother had,
perhaps, the care most women would not get, as my father was always in
a good position earning a good salary--I may say £150 a year at that
time. But with all those advantages, she could not have the care she
ought, or the rest, and, of course, no trained nurses, as we have at
the present time.
I often wonder when I read of the deaths of women, at from forty years
of age upward, if, when they should be having the best of their lives,
that their early deaths are due to lack of care and rest during the
times they are having their babies.