1950s Mothers

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Nappy family: A post-war mum and child

This was the world of Call The Midwife - innocent and optimistic.
They had survived World War II and looked forward to a better time - the promise of peacetime that UK PM Harold Macmillan encapsulated in his famous words, ‘Let’s be frank about it; most of our people have never had it so good’. These words were said in July 1957.

A Forties baby, a Fifties child, words and images from a much-maligned period evoke nostalgia. The historian Peter Hennessy sums it up in his masterly book Having It So Good: ‘...Like everyone else my age, I can be transported back in a moment to the 1950s by coal smoke on a damp wind, a glimpse of an old lady in a grey pakamac, a snatch of Perry Como singing Magic Moments or even the sight of a bottle of Babycham.'

There was hardship but it did not match the Depression, rationing remained, furniture was utilitarian and the post-war housing shortage forced young couples to live with their parents or in overcrowded conditions and yet that  generation benefited from the Butler Education Act and the creation of the welfare state and the National Health Service in the UK.

FACT

A Silver Cross pram was out of reach of most people, but a popular brand called Swan cost £17. At the time a man might be earning £4 a week, so it would be a long time before the hire purchase loan was repaid.

Mothers, whose memories form the backbone for Sheila Hardy’s cheerful and informative book - subtitled Bringing Up Baby In The 1950s - certainly had an easier time than their own parents. Attitudes to parenting changed but the work of experts like Truby King and his disciple Mabel Liddiard offered ‘training’ for ‘mothercraft.’

The detail of Hardy’s book is fascinating - for example, pregnant mothers were advised not to swim on (unspecified) hygienic grounds and driving only resumed with a doctor’s permission when the baby reached six months. Only the wealthy had cars in any case and very few women could drive.

At a time when people smoked in the cinema, cafes and at home, with babies and children in the room! it is not surprising that opinion was divided on pregnant women smoking. The 1950 Sunday Express Baby Book said: ‘A cigarette now and then would seem to do no harm. If you are a heavy smoker, doctors advise that you cut down to a great extent, but you need not stop entirely…’

The modern orthodoxy, which assumes new fathers will probably attend ante-natal classes and then the delivery, would have astonished parents and midwives alike in the Fifties. Women were never described as ‘pregnant’ but more decorously) as ‘expecting’ and childbirth was 'women’s business'.

One expert warns the new mother, ‘You may slip into sleep so quickly that you will not even be aware of the proud father - if he is allowed to slip into your room for a moment to see you.’ Sheila Hardy points out that the exclusion of men from the whole birth experience ‘may account for why it took many men of that generation time to bond with their children’.

Never had it so good: Former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan

On the other hand, new mums had a good rest in hospital - at least a week and sometimes ten days. The new mother was bombarded with lists and instructions - from the essential items in the baby’s ‘layette’ (‘4 nightgowns of wool or cotton crepe, 4 dozen nappies etc’) to putting the baby into a room of his own straight away to making sure there was plenty of fresh air, even in winter.

A textbook of the period is ruthless about feeding methods which are normal nowadays: ‘The careless, shiftless and ignorant mother, whose child is brought up without method, and given the breast whenever he cries for it, is injuring both the health and the character of her child.’

Sheila Hardy reprints a typical time-table for the baby’s day, from the 6am feed to the 3pm ‘airing out of doors’ to the 5-6pm ‘exercise period’. It all seemed to make sense - a routine for babies reassures them and gives the mother a structure for a day which can otherwise descend into chaos. As a creature of that era, a mother would say that, wouldn’t she?

Breast versus bottle, when to wean, how to potty-train … all these were issues in the Fifties as they still are now. One timetable for potty-training seems terrifying: ‘6.45 am - take him to urinate ... put him back into a dry bed. 7am - rises, urinates, gets light sponge bath. 7.30am - on toilet for bowel movement. 9am - urinates before going out to play in pen or garden. 11am - brought into toilet’… and so on.

Changing times: Smoking while pregnant is more frowned upon than it was

The advice on socialising babies seems even more out-dated. The 1950 Sunday Express Baby Book stipulates: ‘It is good for Baby to see some outside people, but his eating and sleeping routine should on no account be disturbed. He can go visiting occasionally between 3 o’clock and bedtime.’

It gets worse: ‘…Visitors may play with him quietly…. he should not be tossed, tickled, spoken to loudly, or made to laugh hard.’ Did parents obey such advice?

Younger women will certainly find Sheila Hardy’s book a light-hearted and absorbing work of social history. While it would make a terrific present for mothers and grandmothers of that generation, despite the title, it is as much about childhood as it is about babies - and some of the reminiscences are a reminder that all change is not necessarily for the better.

For example, in her baby book ‘Mrs L’ recorded this: ‘He speaks well at 20 months. He knows the last words of the lines of 15 nursery rhymes. Also, he recited the whole of Georgie Porgy without being prompted, although he was never taught it.’
So, when fairy tales and nursery rhymes were the means to pass on our cultural heritage, those hands-on mothers introduced their children to repetition, music and language. You can’t say that of the TV or iPad as babysitter.