These days, when you go to the hospital to have a baby, the stays are generally short and sweet, with your baby right there by your side practically every minute. But that wasn’t always the case, as a Reddit post shows. A mom on the Mommit forum posted a page of instructions for new moms in the hospital from back in the 1970s and it reveals how very different things were back then.
In the 70s, newborns stayed in the hospital nursery, where nurses cared for them until it was time for the baby to eat. And according to this manual, that happened at very specific times.
- “Unless your baby required incubator care, your baby will be brought to you to feed at approximately 5:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 1:20 p.m., 5:40 p.m., and 9:30 p.m.,” the page reads.
- If your bundle of joy was smaller, you got to see them more often. “If your baby is 6 lbs. or under ... you will feed approximately every three hours — 6:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m., 9:30 p.m."
- Hospital staff wanted moms to be ready and give their full attention to the baby, so they asked women to turn off the TV, hang up the phone and put out their cigarettes, as there was no smoking around the baby.
- Moms were also in charge of security and safety, as the instructions direct them to “Insist that the nurse checks your wrist band against the name on the baby’s band.”
Source: Cafe Mom
Scott's Thoughts:
- People can’t smoke inside anywhere these days, can you imagine smoking in a hospital room?
- Giving mom time to sleep and recover still sounds like a good idea even today.
- Technology has helped in keeping the babies safe and properly identified.