I am afraid many mothers, like myself, will find it almost impossible
to explain our sufferings. During pregnancy we do not all suffer alike,
but to me it was nine months of misery. But I had to work all the time.
My husband’s wages were only £1 a week, and he had to lose all wet
weather. With my fourth child he was out of work twelve weeks in the
bitter winter. I worked as dressmaker with a machine nearly night and
day, and when the baby was brought into the world with instruments, I
nearly lost my life, and could not be moved for nearly a fortnight. My
ninth son, I was working at a lady’s house when near my confinement,
and in putting down a carpet I hurt myself very much, and was very ill
until my baby was born, and then he was born a cripple--would have
always walked on his ankles, with the soles of his feet together. But
I used to take him to the hospital for a long time, and he is able to
get his own living now. So you will see it takes all energy and hope
and joy out of a woman’s life, when they have to work the whole time
through no fault of their own or their husbands, but just to keep the
home together.
_Wages £1; twelve children, one still-birth, four miscarriages._