Note: In celebration of my birthday week, I am taking a wee baby step away from the onslaught of chaotic news. This week, it’s a birthday bonanza of mid-century pregnancy, birth, and babies.

What to Expect When Your Mid-Century Mother’s Expecting

My mother, Betty, like every lady-in-waiting circa 1954, knew that they would have an easier time during pregnancy than other mothers before them. Having a baby in that push-button age of jet propulsion was a snap! No Fuss No Muss! ”

A Womb Without a View

 I was the second tenant to take up temporary residence in Mom’s cozy uterus. It was a bit of a fixer-upper due to the wear and tear of its original occupant, my restless older brother Andy.

 My time in the womb would be more like a waiting room, unlike the classroom it is thought of today. Just like a watched pot never boils, Mom believed, like most others, that a baby developed passively in the dark and quiet of the womb, just biding their time.

Having a baby was now as easy as set it and forget it.

The 1950’s womb was not unlike the popular new automatic-built-in-ovens, where you could cook a whole meal without even being in the house. Having a baby was easy as pop it in the oven- it does the cooking. Press a key, turn a dial, set the timer clock, and your womb does the cooking, watches your little dumpling self baste in amniotic fluids, while you go play Canasta. Come back in nine months…Results perfect…No guesswork or peeking.

It was the automatic pregnancy women dreamed of.

All the tending and timing are handled by your wise doctor, a man whom you could trust. Next to the milkman, no one was more important in a mid-century mom’s life than her obstetrician. She could be assured he came equipped with the most up-to-date scientific know-how.

Doctors were as anxious to produce a happy mother, Betty was assured, as they were to produce a healthy baby. Lucky for baby Sally and lucky for mom-to-be Betty.

My second time, Mother Betty had firsthand knowledge of pregnancy, but coping with a toddler going through the terrible twos- a condition that would last a lifetime for my tantrum-throwing brother – could cause her nerves to get frazzled. Lucky for her,  visits to her doctor offered just the reassuring help she needed.

“Don’t be such a brooder, Betty,” her obstetrician Dr Moe Weinberg, smiled at my mother. Sitting behind his big oak desk, he offered a light for her cigarette.  She drew deeply of the fragrant smoke,  the cool mildness of the tobacco tars a treat to her throat.

“Relax!” the doctor advised.  Modern pregnancy, he assured her, was a modern miracle. No fuss, no muss.

Gently patting my mother’s hand, he tried to calm my fretting mother. “Nowadays pregnancy is a breeze.”

To help her achieve peace of mind, he assured her she’d be on her way to a calm and collected motherhood if she’d relax and prepare. “Just as a healthy dose of arsenate of lead mixed in the soil before planting would produce a fine, healthy lawn, you’ll have a fine, healthy baby if you relax and prepare.” Nothing was more important than steady nerves.

And nothing would help you relax like a soothing cigarette.

“Cigarettes contain not just one but a combination of medically proven active ingredients to soothe frayed nerves,” explained the doctor.  He promised it would “restore her flow of healthful energy …a quick and delightful energizing effect!”

“Quit being a worry wart, Betty, ‘laughter,” he said referencing the famous Readers Digest section was the best medicine,’ and smoking was like a doctor’s prescription for relaxation.”

In 1954, it would be a good ten years before the Surgeon General’s landmark report concluded that there was a link between lung cancer and cigarette smoking, so until then, my mother blissfully puffed away while pregnant with me.

“No need to curtail cocktail hour with hubby either, her Dr said, smiling, handing her a brochure:

 “There is no logical reason to prohibit the moderate use of alcohol during pregnancy to the patient who enjoys and tolerates it.”

Alcohol diffuses rapidly across the placenta and soon attains equilibrium in the two circulations. This knowledge may dissuade ‘m lady from taking just one more, since she cannot know and never will know whether her fetus will enjoy the additional cocktail as much as she may.

It is to be remembered that alcohol is rich in calories, so that the pregnant woman who is gaining too rapidly had best limit its consumption. Such patients should be cognizant of the fact that ordinarily straight liquor has fewer calories than fancy cocktails or beer.

 

“Enjoy a Dacari,” he recommended, “less calories than a glass of skim milk!”

I would be ready for an in utero happy hour myself.

Modern Medicine to the Rescue -Thorazine

Modern medicine also came to the aid of morning sickness.

Recently, a new medication, Thorazine had been used successfully to treat nausea, especially morning sickness. Some sleepiness occurs, but as some doctors pointed out, it might be desirable for patients who are somewhat jumpy or anxious.

However, to counter the drowsiness, Dexedrine was prescribed, “not only helping with the sleepiness but would help curb your appetite too,” he winked.

Thorazine really was mother’s little helper, offering relief through all stages of a gals pregnancy. It came in mighty handy during labor. It reduced the tendency to vomit, and the advertisements promised, “it gives the patient an almost detached attitude towards her hospital environment and her labor.”

Makes everything more carefree!

Yes, there had been so many more advances to help these young mothers, thanks to new, remarkable products and knowledge to meet the new way of modern living

”Your baby,” he told my mother solemnly, “will be spared so much, because of the wonders of modern science!”

A 1955 baby didn’t need a four-leaf clover to be lucky.

Yes, mine would be a colorfast world of frost-free fun.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2017. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.