The Victorian view of sex placed pregnancy in an unusual position. Maternity was thought to be a woman’s glory, but at the same time it was an obvious result of sexual intercourse. As a result, pregnant women of the upper, more refined classes stayed indoors rather than show their change in condition.
The Victorian sensitivity to even the term "pregnancy" led to it being replaced with other terms such as "in a family way", "expecting" , "in a delicate condition", and " in confinement".
"You being inexperienced in these things I think it my duty to give you some advice. You ought not to lift any thing very heavy nor reach up your arms to be carefull of jumping down from high places these have often proved fatal to woman in your situation and try to get as much sleep as possible under existing circumstances with these restrictions I want you to do all the good you can."
Letter to Julia Patterson from her mother, Rachel Johnston, September 8, 1833.
Baby Making: A Woman’s Role in 19TH Century America
"Pregnancy, birth, and postpartum recovery occupied a significant portion of most women’s adult lives, and motherhood a major portion of their identity."
(Judith Walzer Leavitt, Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America, 1750 to 1950)
Throughout the 19th century having children was a major role for women. At the beginning of the century, white women bore an average of seven live children. By 1900, this high fertility rate was cut in half to 3.56 children for white, native born women. On the other hand, the fertility rate remained high for many other groups throughout the nineteenth century, particularly immigrants and black women. In 1900, Southern white women living on farms averaged 6 children; black women had 5 children; foreign-born white women had 4.54 children; German immigrant women had 7.22 children; and Irish immigrant women had 7.34 children. What is not known is how many more pregnancies ended in miscarriage or stillbirth.
On average, women in the 19th century married when they were 21 years old. Their first child was born approximately 16 months later. Since conception was biologically unlikely as long as the woman nursed, births were approximately 15 to 20 months apart. A woman’s last child was born when she was approximately 40 years old.
During Julia Patterson’s 30 years of marriage to Jefferson, she was pregnant, recovering from pregnancy, or nursing for 19 years and 3 months. Julia married Jefferson when she was 21 years old. Her first child was born when she was 22 years old. 9 months after getting married. Her last baby was born when she was 45 years old. All total, she had 11 living children.
Labor and Delivery:
"Women Only Please"
"Women suffered through the agonies and dangers of birthing together, sought each other’s support, and shared the relief of successful deliveries and the grief of unsuccessful ones. This "social childbirth" experience united women and provided…one of the functional bonds that formed the basis of women’s culture."
(Judith Walzer Leavitt, Bought to Bed: Childbearing in America, 1750 to 1950)
Childbirth was a "women only" event. Only in cases where women were not available did men participate in labor and delivery.The common feeling was that men could not match the psychological comforts provided by women because they had not personally experienced childbirth.
The common pattern, particularly in the first half of the 19th century, was that women attended other women during labor and delivery. Midwives, experienced friends, family members or neighbors orchestrated the events of labor and delivery.
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| Health: A Constant Concern
Health was an important consideration for most pregnant women in the 19th century. Many middle and lower class women, along with those living on farms, did not have the luxury of doing nothing during pregnancy. Therefore, they sought advice from other women who had experienced childbirth.
Many even "worried so much about prenatal influence upon the child of things they had seen, done, read, or even thought about during pregnancy that they sometimes found it safest to do nothing at all".
(Richard W. Wertz, Lying-In: A History of Childbirth in America)
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Expectations:
Suffering and Death
During most of American history, a major part of a woman’s childbearing experience was their anticipation of dying or of being permanently injured during the delivery process. Cotton Mather, a noted Puritan minister of 18th century New England, wrote that conception meant, "your death has entered into you". The belief was that a possible death sentence came with each pregnancy
It is unknown how many women died from maternity-related causes during the 19th century. However, in 1900 the death rate from maternity-related causes was approximately 65 times greater than they were in 1980.
Complicating recovery was the Victorian practice of keeping women in bed for 10 days to two weeks after delivery, along with the Victorian fashion of wearing a corset, which restricted and confined a woman’s body. |
| Midwives: A Non-Interventionist
Traditionally, midwives played a non-interventionist, supporting role letting nature takes its course. Most of the time, midwives comforted pregnant women during labor and waited to aid in the delivery.
During particularly hard labor, midwives, at times, offered birthing women hard liquor or mulled wine to ease the pain. In some rare cases, midwives did tasks such as manually stretch the cervix or administering ergot, a drug that stimulated contractions. |
Physicians: An Interventionist
"A doctor must do something. He cannot remain a spectator merely, where there are many witnesses, and where interest in what is going on is too deep to allow of his inaction."
(Dr. Walter Channing, the first professor to teach obstretics at the Harvard Medical School)
Known as the "hands of iron", forceps could remove the fetus during a difficult labor. When properly used, forceps saved lives; when misused, they increased the chance of a woman experiencing long-term physical problems and cause head injuries to the fetus. |
| During the first half of the 19th century, physician-assisted labor was limited to those women living in large cities and those who could afford the extra fees. During the latter part of the century, physicians became more available to poorer women and single women delivering in hospital.
Victorian standards of modesty complicated the use of male physicians during labor and delivery. The key modesty problem was not touch, but sight. As a result, physicians were expected to examine expectant mothers and deliver babies by touch alone.
Generally, physicians intervened in the birthing process much more than midwives. They practiced procedures such as bloodletting and a wide variety of drugs to aid in delivery. |
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Baptism
For Christian families, baptism was a normal part of life in the mid-19th century. Depending on a family’s religious belief, baptism was either accomplished while the child was an infant or when the individual became an adult in the eyes of the church.
The Episcopal Church set the requirements for baptism in the Book of Common Prayer. Infants were to be baptized as soon as possible after birth, preferably on a Sunday and in church. To baptize at home required a "great and reasonable cause." Likewise, Baptism could be administered on other days of the week, but only under unusual circumstances, such as impending death.
"The people are to be admonished, that it is most convenient that Baptism shall be administered but upon Sundays and other Holy Days or Prayer Days." 1789 edition of the Book of Common Prayer
Present at the Baptism were the parents along with the Godfathers and Godmothers. In the case of godparents, the "Book of Common Prayer" specified that "there shall be for every Male child to be baptized when they can be had, two Godfathers and one Godmother; and for every Female, one Godfather and two Godmothers." The Godparents or "Sponsors" duty was to ensure that the child "was brought up to lead a godly and a Christian life". Parents could also act as Sponsors.
Baptism was complete when the infant had been either dipped in the water of the Baptismal Font or the water from the Font was poured over the infant’s head.
The Patterson Family was a member of Christ Episcopal Church in Dayton. Robert Patterson was born at five o’clock in the morning of November twenty-seventh, 1833. Six weeks later he was christened in the new Episcopal Church on Jefferson Street. (Charlotte Conover, Concerning the Forefathers, 1902)
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