I was married one year and five months before my first boy was born.
I nearly lost my life. I was in labour from 1 o’clock in the morning
until 7.5 at night. Then the doctor used instruments. He stated I had
worked too hard, and not rested sufficiently, but I could not afford a
girl. My husband then was only getting £1 1s. per week, and 5s. rent
had to be paid out of it. The second baby came fifteen months after....
I had no milk for either. I was in labour with the second from Monday
dinner-time until Tuesday night. Then the doctor gave me an injection
of warm water; as I was torn so badly before, he did not want to use
the instruments. Two years after I had a miscarriage.... I then had
to lie in bed for a whole month. I kept a small girl, and I used to
do my own ironing and knead my bread in bed unknown to the doctor. I
had a bed put down in the small parlour to save the girl and children
running upstairs. I feel sure that if I had had a maternity benefit
then to help me, I should not be suffering now inwardly. No mother
can stay in bed very comfortably knowing things are going on anyhow
while she is in bed. Then, again, during the time she is carrying the
child, her mind is troubled, and she becomes fretful, hence a fretful,
delicate child. The mother, when funds are low, goes without much food,
pleading headache, etc., so as to try and blind her husband. I think
an expectant mother should rest at least half an hour every day, and
especially towards the last should have no heavy work to do, such as
washing and ironing. The extra weight she is carrying naturally throws
the humours into her legs, the veins standing out like thick cords,
and at night she cannot sleep for cramps and aches. The child is the
asset of the nation, and the mother the backbone. Therefore, I think
the nation should help to feed and keep that mother, and so help to
strengthen the nation by her giving birth to strong boys and girls.
She does not require weaklings, and insufficient food and overwork and
worry is the root of this weakness, both in the case of mother and
child. I only hope that sick visitors should see that it is the mothers
that are getting the benefit of the maternity benefit, and not the
husband, and often the landlord.
_Wages 20s. to 23s.; two children._