Having a baby?? Don't forget your...um.. .jam jar?

[Pamela.Ebrey]

Hi everyone!
I'm hoping someone can help answer a silly question that is driving my father and I crazy... it's a stupid little thing but we are both spending way too much time trying to figure out why a jam jar was apparently an essential tool for having a baby in 1961.

My mother died last year and I acquired a load of old family papers from helping my Dad clean out the loft. Among said papers was a list from the Warwickshire County Council that was sent to my mom; it was entitled "Requirements for Home Confinements" and was obviously a list of things needed if you were going to have your baby at home.

This was probably for my brother, who was born at home in 1961, and the list contains those things you would normally expect to have on hand at such a time.. towels, soap, baby powder, etc.

But right in the middle of the "For Mother" list is...

1 jam jar.

And not just any old jam jar, either... carefully written next to it is:

"2lb size with lid"

Now.. both of my children were born in a hospital and I don't recall seeing or needing a jam jar at any point in the process.

My Dad and I have gone really silly trying to imagine what this could possibly have been used for.. his best suggestion was that it could be used to pickle the baby in if it was stillborn.. then at least you'd have something to show for all that effort!

I know the answer is probably something extremely mundane and ordinary but it has provided hours of entertainment for Dad and me. (We found out recently that one of my daughter's friends is expecting... both Dad and I cried in unison "Don't forget your jam jar!" I'm sure we must be tipping over the edge into lunacy at this point.

So, aside from the question of what the jam jar was to be used for... have any of you ever come across incongruous items in an otherwise sane and sober document? Did you ever find out why it was there?

Someone please put us out of our misery.....

Pamela

[Billyblue]

I'd say it was for the midwife to put the placenta in.

A 2 lb jar would be fairly large, wouldn't it?

Dawn M

[Mike in Cumbria]

I'd say it was for the midwife to put the placenta in.

A 2 lb jar would be fairly large, wouldn't it?

Dawn M

That would be my guess too.  I think it would be quite tricky slipping it into a 1lb jar, hence the 2lb specification!

[mazi]

The expert sitting alongside me points out that the midwife will weigh the placenta, was a set of scales mentioned  ,   mind her doctor suggested four bottles of guiness as an aid to milk production 

mike

[Pamela.Ebrey]

No mention at all of scales, but there was a notation for "Newspapers and brown paper" which I assumed was for the disposition of the placenta.

One of my earlier musings was perhaps that the jam jar should be filled with whiskey!! Not so long ago, here in southern USA you could... acquire... moonshine that would come in jam jars... and not particularly clean ones either, as I remember, I mean read in a book somewhere 

[jc26red]

I think placenta too.

The newspapers and brown paper were to go under mother to minimise the mattress getting messy.  Brown paper bottom as its more water repellant than newspaper, newspaper on top though I expect the print came off   
1961? I don't suppose dad was even in the room to mop the fevered brow

[Lydart]

I'd go along for the placenta too !

Never heard about paper under the mother, but it makes sense in the days before plastic sheeting !

[Suzy W]

Here in NZ a new t.v show about the myths of motherhood is about to start. 
In the ads for the show it said about women drinking beer to bring on milk, another was scrubbing nipples with a tooth brush ready for breast feeding Ouch.

Don't forget the "Glowing" Pregnancy...Where on earth did that come from?  General tiredness, back pain, nausea, weight gain, veins, I never glowed looked like a beached whale.

Now a jam jar is totally new to me, maybe for the drink of beer especially after all of the complaints of above, then you have to contend with a non stop crying new born   I certainly think a good strong drink is needed after that.

Suzy W

[ann255]

I think placenta too.

The newspapers and brown paper were to go under mother to minimise the mattress getting messy.  Brown paper bottom as its more water repellant than newspaper, newspaper on top though I expect the print came off   
1961? I don't suppose dad was even in the room to mop the fevered brow

My mother told me that her knees were covered in print where she had been kneeling on the newspaper put down on the bed when she was having me, so the above is definitely correct.  And as for dad to be there!!! Back in the 1940's not only was it not done for dads to be there but they had to work.  Despite knowing mum was in labour he still had to go to work and he didnt get to see us until he came home from work that evening.    Imagine that now.