Pregnancy Blog - For All Your Pregnancy Things by PregnancyWeekly

Pregnancy Through the Decades

noreply@blogger.com (Violet) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:20:00 +0000

As hard as pregnancy may be today, it doesn't compare to having a baby several decades ago.

Helen Rohweder: "I had the first one August '36. Richard was in June '38. Carol was March '45."

Compared to 1936, being pregnant today may seem like a piece of cake. If you suspected you were pregnant decades ago, you'd have to see a doctor to confirm your suspicions. The home pregnancy test did not hit the mainstream until the late 1970s. Today all it takes is a dollar and a trip to the store to find out the truth. Home tests are so accurate that doctors don't see a newly-pregnant woman until she's eight weeks along. Now a woman can even test to see if she's fertile at home.

Dr. Joel Carlson: "Fertility evaluation - we have a lot more tests available now if there could be an auto-immune issue, anatomical issue, certainly a hormonal issue with regards to ovulation. We can make ovulation occur on a particular day if we needed to."

As for your diet, nothing was off limits and prenatal care wasn't a big issue. Most pregnant women today are overly cautious about what they do - and don't - put into their bodies. It seems crazy now but not too long ago, moms-to-be were encouraged to have a drink or two to take the edge off during pregnancy.

As for ultrasounds, what ultrasound? Up until the 1980s it was rare for a woman to get an ultrasound if her pregnancy was going smoothly. Before ultrasounds everything - including the gender of the baby - was a surprise. Long gone are those days of not knowing.

Helen: "We'd had two boys so when Caroline was born the doctor just hurriedly came to Walt and said, 'It's a girl. It's a girl.' But we didn't have tests like they do now."

Carlson: "Ultrasound has certainly given us the window inside especially with the invention of 3-d and 4-d ultrasounds where you actually get to see what they look like."

Delivery back then was also for women only. Husbands were typically told to wait outside in the waiting room. There were maternity wards and hospitals, but a lot of women had their babies at home. If you decided to have your baby in the hospital many years ago, the experience was a bit different.

Helen: "When you had a baby then you were in the hospital for 10 days."

Today, moms also have many choices when it comes to their birthing plan. Josie Hatch, a mother of three, had her first child at the hospital and her second and third at home with a midwife. That has become more and more popular these days.

Josie: "The labor was so much less painful at home because it was more comfortable at home."

Pregnancy has changed drastically over the years but the one thing I would go back in time for is that hospital bill.

Helen: "Our son Richard framed the bill from our doctor and it was $25. Can you imagine that now?"

Pregnancy Blog - For All Your Pregnancy Things by PregnancyWeekly

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