My birth

[aspin]

My grandchildren didn't believe I hadn't a cot .My mother used a draw from her chest of draws and put a pillow inside . I remember some one saying their mother used the washing basket
Make do was those things in those days just before the war
happy memories
Elizabeth

[brigidmac]

Aspin I saw a premature baby kept in a drawer
In 1985 ..looked like a wrinkley  doll .
It was in Algeria .

[DianaCanada]

Someone I used to know was born around 1916 and was premature.  She was kept in the oven.  She lived into her 90's.

[Treetotal]

I guess the GI Bill paid for me.  My father was a college student at the time so he didn't have any money.  Once my mother was up and around, she went to work as a secretary in the chemistry department and she took me with her in a cardboard box.

Love it!!
Carol

[brigidmac]

For comparison and because I know some of you will never have seen one of these affiliation orders
This is what my great grandfather had to pay to cover birth of his daughter in 1900

First bit upkeep is 4/- (shillings) per week til she reaches age of 14

Next bit is medical attendant
 £1-1-0 one pound one shilling

That seems very high ..maybe covered costs of mother to stay somewhere
Also 10/6 allowed   ?
And 11/-

Whatever those last costs were .
he paid £2 /2/6 on 19/3/1900

Sorry I couldn't post whole document and it came out sideways .

[Viktoria]

It was customary in households to put a young baby in the bottom drawer of a set of built in drawers right next to the big black kitchen range which was the hub of a terraced house.
Off the floor, more or less in a corner so not in the way of life going on around it.
Often what bed linen the house had would be there ,so a firm “ mattress” well aired was there for the baby.
Yes ,make do and mend was the norm, we had to put our adventurous one year old (still in the carry cot ,)into the bedding chest, I can see him now peeping over the top ,standing up and holding on to the edge .It was just temporary until the end of the month ,pay day ,and we could get a single bed for the eldest so younger one could go in the big cot.
The lid of the bedding chest was right down behind the chest between it and the wall,so it could not shut him in!
It was just for a couple of weeks.

Yes make do and mend was the norm, mind you I have never used a tennis racquet to strain spaghetti !
Viktoria.

[Pennines]

I was born in January 1945 at home. It had never crossed my mind before about the cost.

Amongst my Mum's photos though is one of my Dad in his Army uniform, his brother in his Navy uniform - and my Mum, outside our house. On the back are their names and the date of April 1944. So I was born 9 months later! I can tell you when I first saw that photo and the reverse - it gave me quite a turn.

I don't know if I was actually present on it, or whether I was 'yet to be'.

I also have my birth announcement in the local paper - I had no Christian name and was 'a gift of a daughter'. The announcement also said 'Thanking Nurse Neville and Mother'.

Another thing I love, which I have attached - is a photo of me as a baby, in what clearly doubled up as a tin wash tub, in front of the fire. I do remember this tin wash tub hanging on a large nail or something, in our back yard. Oh gosh - how times have changed.

I expect many of you of a similar age may have been bathed in the same way - or were you posh and had an actual bathroom!!

(Oops - sorry the photo came out larger than I expected!)

[coombs]

My uncle was born in September 1944 and Nan said she had a difficult birth and had to have 2 doctors out. Nan said it was about 3 in the morning.

[Treetotal]

Pennines...What a cracking photo and you were so cute with all those curls  Yes we had a tin bath hung on a nail outside, in a recess with a corrugated roof.
I think this photo deserves the attention of the photo board, a little colour too maybe.
Thanks for sharing.
Carol