The Short Story

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Pregnancy and care

Until the 20th century pregnancy was the inevitable result of most heterosexual relationships. The majority of women married, and society frowned on single women who became pregnant.

Women wore loose clothing or corsets to hide their bulge. Often they relied on midwives, family members or neighbours to care for them and deliver the baby. Many women feared childbirth because they or the baby might die. Until the 1970s men usually had little to do with babies.

Gradually medical science made birth less risky. Women and babies were checked during pregnancy, and often doctors attended the birth. By the 2000s the first pictures of a baby were often ultrasound images showing the baby’s development in the womb.

Antenatal (before birth) classes taught women about childbirth and how to care for their babies.

Hospitals and birth

In 1904 the government began to open maternity hospitals and to train and register midwives. But women continued to die from infections following childbirth. As more women gave birth in hospitals and hygiene improved, greater numbers survived. By 1939, 78% of women gave birth in hospital attended by a doctor.

Hospital rules were strict. Women were expected to give birth on their backs with their feet in stirrups. The number of Caesarean sections – delivering the baby through a cut in the mother’s abdomen – increased. Women were often given strong drugs for pain relief. Fathers were not allowed to attend the birth.

Childbirth, 1950s to 2000s

In 1951 Parents Centre began. Its members felt that women should have more control over childbirth. The Home Birth Association wanted women to give birth at home. Midwives wanted to be able to deliver babies without a doctor present.

Hospital rules became more relaxed. By the 1970s husbands were allowed to attend the birth of their children, and later boyfriends or de facto partners could attend too.

Smaller maternity hospitals were closed between the 1970s and 1990s, and women gave birth in large general hospitals.

Midwives began to dominate maternity care, and many family doctors no longer attended births. Most women gave birth in hospital. By 2005, 23.8% of babies were born by Caesarean section.

Birth rates

In the 19th century birth rates were high. In 1878 the average married woman had nine babies. The birth rate fell after the 1870s. By the 1930s many women had only two babies. More people used contraception, and in the 1960s women could take the birth control pill.

After the Second World War women married young and there was a ‘baby boom’ which lasted till the 1970s.

By the 2000s women began to have their first babies when they were older, and the number of twins increased.

Baby care

In 1907 the Plunket Society was founded to help mothers and babies. Until the 1930s many families paid a nurse or midwife to stay with them after the birth and look after the mother and baby, and any older children.

Until the 1970s women stayed in hospital for up to two weeks after giving birth. They were taught how to breastfeed and bathe babies. The babies were kept in a nursery away from their mothers. By the 1980s women left hospital early if they wanted. Some women were encouraged to leave hospital the day after the birth.

Plunket nurses encouraged women to breastfeed their babies. But the number of bottle-fed babies increased, and by the 1960s only half of mothers breastfed. At first mothers were encouraged to use watered-down cow’s milk in bottles, but by the 2000s infant formula was recommended.

Welcoming the new baby

The birth of a baby was usually announced in the newspaper. Birth was often celebrated by a ritual. Babies were baptised in a church, or their parents held a naming ceremony.