Contents
- Do not think about ugly people: what advice was given to pregnant women and young mothers 100 years ago
- 1. The child should be put to sleep with his head to the north
- 2. Pregnant women should not think about ugly people
- 3. The child should not interfere with the life of the parents
- 4. The baby must cry to develop lungs
Do not think about ugly people: what advice was given to pregnant women and young mothers 100 years ago
Historian and writer Teresa O’Neill analyzed books on advice on motherhood and childhood from the XNUMXth and early XNUMXth centuries. The result is a whole collection of ridiculous pseudoscientific requirements for the behavior of mothers.
Pregnancy, childbirth, child health – there are few areas of human life that would be just as shrouded in all sorts of signs and superstitions. Many in all seriousness forbid expectant mothers to knit – there will be an umbilical cord entanglement, there is fish – the baby will be dumb. There have been many nonsense in all ages, but 100 years ago they were still believed. We have collected the most incredible tips that we gave to pregnant women and moms.
1. The child should be put to sleep with his head to the north
In 1878, a study by child care specialist Dr. Henry Kennedy was published, which stated: “It is known that large electric currents are constantly circulating around our planet in one direction. There is no doubt that our nervous system is mysteriously connected with this universal phenomenon called electricity, and therefore the position of the child with the head to the north is the most favorable for his health. ” Since it was impossible to prove or disprove such a postulate, the mothers, just in case, did what the respected pediatrician recommended.
By the way, now there is also a bunch of tips on how to sleep properly. Both feng shui and folk signs give their recommendations. However, no scientific arguments on how to properly put the bed have appeared.
2. Pregnant women should not think about ugly people
And also about injuries and injuries. This was written in the 1920s in Scientific Eugenics by B. Jeffries and J. Nichols. In those days, the term “eugenics” had a positive connotation and meant strengthening and strengthening the best qualities of the next generations. Of course, no one risked contradicting eminent scientists to the detriment of their child, and mothers thought about beauty with all their might. What if the baby really will be so handsome and handsome, which has never been in the family before? No one thought that oranges would not be born from the aspen.
3. The child should not interfere with the life of the parents
From the first birthday, the child lived according to a strict schedule and was subject to strict discipline. It was recommended to show tender feelings very limitedly. In the 1916 manual “Mother and Child”, doctors Lena and William Sadler : “Take the child in your arms as little as possible. Turn him sometimes from side to side, feed him, change diapers, keep him warm and leave him alone for as long as possible.
The advice is violent to the point of shivering. However, now, when young mothers and fathers have embarked on a course of overprotection of children, psychologists still advise to relax. Mikhail Labkovsky, for example, believes that children should live the life of their parents. And the traditions of French upbringing say that a child is not a reason to change a lifestyle. It seems the time has come to find the golden mean.
4. The baby must cry to develop lungs
All the old textbooks were unanimous about crying. “A child should cry a lot and loudly every day,” write the Sandlers. It was believed that a capricious child would be unhappy all his life, suffer from tantrums and an inability to cope with difficulties. “A nervous child is often difficult to discipline. Sometimes he may even turn blue from screaming, he may have a cramp, or a small blood vessel will burst on his face. When you see that this is going to happen, turn the child over and give him a good spank. ” There are moments in the life of every parent when, having done everything possible, he is forced to close the door and leave the room where his crying child is safe. However, few people today are ready for the sake of discipline to bring a child to convulsions and rupture of blood vessels.
Psychologists say that by leaving a child alone with his misfortune (after all, he cries for a reason, when he is small), you destroy his confidence in safety. And this feeling is one of the most important in the life of a tiny person.
Clear guidelines were given even in relation to natural needs. “Children under one year old should have stool twice within 24 hours, and from one to three years old – at least once a day,” states Nafisa’s book “Woman’s Health”. If the child does not meet these requirements, the same book advises to give him an enema or give him a laxative.
According to Dr. Rima Apple, professor emeritus of human ecology and author of the book Ideal Motherhood, all this and other wonderful advice was not stupid. They were caused by the vital necessity of that time. In the early twentieth century, 10 to 30 percent of American children did not live to be one year old. They were dying of causes we don’t think about today: poor quality water, unpasteurized milk, measles and whooping cough. The frightened mothers for whom these books were written did not know why their children were screaming or getting sick, and in despair turned to anyone who claimed to know what to do.
Why do you think mothers were told not to take a crying baby in their arms? – asks Apple and replies: “If a mother had four children, she was physically unable to lift them every half hour, so the children were taught to be independent early. Otherwise, they simply would not have survived. “
The doctor advises not to forget one simple thing. Children by nature want to live and be healthy. Whatever new wave of educational teachings sweeps over them, they adapt to it. In 100 years, historians will probably write in disgust about how we used diapers and did not know how subatomic particles affect cognitive development. But they will be able to judge us, because they survived all the shortcomings of our upbringing, just as our grandmothers survived in the conditions of insufficient information that their parents possessed.