Snapshots from the past

Just take a look at what we have come across. As you can see they are old pictures from the East End dated roughly 1948. The pram appears to be a Silvercross. You can still get them now but are very expensive.
You didn't have light weight buggies in those
days and you had to walk everywhere because
you couldn't get on the bus with it.The attitude
towards prams in those days were very different.

Read some of the quotes/stories to see what mothers thought about the subject.

'You had a job to buy a new pram, I had to get mine from Tumbridge Well's where my husband came from' Joan

'I can recall my mum saying that people considered you a 'Lazy mum' if you had a pram for your baby' Jenny

'I have have never heard that having a pram was for lazy mothers. My mum had one, but I can only ever remember it being wheeled out to collect off cuts of wood from my Grandads factory, to be used as fire wood.' Mary


' My Nan told me, when she had my mum in 1908, you didn't see a doctor, you told a midwife roughly the time you thought a baby might be due. When she got pains, the midwife called round, and if you were hard up as my Nan was they brought round a 1/4 of tea, some sugar and butter. During labout she heard the two midwifes talking and mentioned twins. When Nan asked what was happening, she was told to mind her own business, keep quiet and if she was going to scream stuff the pillow in her mouth. Mum was a breech birth. Nan never had any more children after that it put her off for life! Mum was born in East Ham. I was born in 1944, my Mum was sent to a Maternity Hospital called Suntrap in Epping, although she lived in West Ham. She was treated well but felt half starved. Whenever there was an air raid, they all dived under the beds, but Mum had a sense of humor and said she could see the funny side of it. All I can say I was glad I had my children in the 70's we don't , know we are born.'

Great story, don't you think, what do you think about the care we receive for new and expectant mothers today? We came across an article in the Metro Tuesday, May 29 2007, Babies 'being put in danger' It is basically highlighting the lack of qualified midwifes in the NHS. It's interesting reading and maybe some would say that old fashioned community midwives were probably better qualified even though they had no formal qualification. They had life experience!

While we are on the subject take a look at this article about Jennifer Worth. She was a midwife who worked in the East End in the 50's. The Daily Mail featured an article on her work as a Midwife, Saturday, June 9, 2007. Wow what can one say! Midwifes on bikes? Back then you had your baby at home and the midwife came to assist the birth on her bike! Once the baby arrived, mother and child were sent to a Maternity Hospital for a few weeks until they were fit enough to be sent home.