Maternity : letters from working-women / collected by the Women's Co-operative Guild.

Date:
1915
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Maternity : letters from working-women / collected by the Women's Co-operative Guild. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    considered an outrage. Now, a working-class woman is habitually deprived of them all. She is lucky if her husband hands her over regularly each week 25s. with which to provide a house, food, and clothing, for the whole family. It has to be remembered that the ordinary family wage leaves nothing over for the additional outlay upon maternity. This ought to amount to £5 if the expenses are properly met. Too poor to obtain medical advice during the months of pregnancy, she “ learns by experience and ignorance,’ comforting herself with the belief that however ill she be it is only “ natural.” Meanwhile she has to scrape and save to put by money for the inevitable expenses that lie before her. She often goes out to char or sits at her sewing machine, to scrape together a few shillings. She puts by in money-boxes; she lays in little stores of tea, soap, oatmeal and other dry goods. At a time when she ought to be well fed she stints herself in order to save; for in a working-class home if there is saving to be done, it is not the husband and children, but the mother who makes her meal off the scraps which remain over, or “‘ plays with meat-less bones.’’ One woman writes: “I can assure you I have told my husband many times that I had had my dinner before he came in, so as there should be plenty to go round for the children and him- self, but he found me out somehow, so that was stopped.” Another woman says: “Many a time I have had bread and dripping for my dinner before my husband came home, and said I had my dinner, as I would not wait.’’ If the mother is not working long hours in a factory, she 1s working even longer hours in her own home. Writers on infant mortality and the decline of the birth-rate never tire of justly pointing to the evils which come from the strain of manual labour in factories for expectant mothers. Very little is ever said about the D
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