“ There is no sign that society, if left to itself, will secrete some antitoxin to purge its own blood. The industrial and capitalist system tends [16] to become continually more industrial and capitalistic; the gulf between the rich and poor, the fortunate and the unfortunate widens; ideals become higher and broader while the means to satisfy them are narrowed in the possession of a narrow class; only discontent seems to rise while the birth-rate falls. Society cannot cure itself, and the last hope, therefore, is for the State to attempt a cure. ”

“ The child is the asset of the nation, and the mother the backbone. Therefore, I think the nation should help to feed and keep that mother, and so help to strengthen the nation by her giving birth to strong boys and girls. She does not require weaklings, and insufficient food and overwork and worry is the root of this weakness, both in the case of mother and child. I only hope that sick visitors should see that it is the mothers that are getting the benefit of the maternity benefit, and not the husband, and often the landlord. ”

“ In plain language, both in law and in popular morality, the wife is still the inferior in the family to the husband. She is first without economic independence, and the law therefore gives the man, whether he be good or bad, a terrible power over her. Partly for [8] this reason, and partly because all sorts of old half-civilised beliefs still cling to the flimsy skirts of our civilisation, the beginning and end of the working woman’s life and duty is still regarded by many as the care of the household, the satisfaction of man’s desires, and the bearing of children. ”

“ The time is past when a shallow application of the doctrine of evolution led people to acquiesce in a high infant death-rate. It was thought that it meant merely the killing off of the weak, leading to the survival of the fittest, and that the process, cruel in its method, was beneficent in its end. There are few now who do not see that the high death-rate is due, in large measure, to a bad environment; and that by keeping a bad environment you produce unfitness. You partly remedy the evil, it is true, by destroying a large number of lives which have been made unfit to survive ”

“ I am glad you are trying to emphasise the need for knowledge on the part of the mother, as my own experience has proved that, given knowledge as to health and the care of the body generally before childbirth, much of the evil which now accompanies this perfectly natural thing might be avoided. In my own case, having always suffered considerably at every monthly period, and not being of a particularly robust type, I made up my mind to go into training before bringing children into the world, in order not to have to pass out at the same time, and leave them to the tender mercies of others. ”

“ These figures speak for themselves: the mere physical strain of pregnancy and childbirth succeeding each other with scarcely an interval for ten or twenty years renders a healthy bodily and intellectual life impossible. And when the additional strain of insufficient means and incessant labour are added, the suffering which becomes the daily concomitant of life is unimaginable to those who are born in the more fortunate classes of society. ”

“ She loved her children, and has had months of sleepless nights with each of the seven. It seems to me, had Government awakened to its duty years ago, seeing to it that the mothers and children should have what was necessary, mothers would not have minded having the children, had they known each little one would be provided for. We should now have a stronger and healthier race of men and women. One does not wonder at the sickly boys and girls one meets in the streets, especially when one knows under what circumstances they were born, and how and what their mothers had to bear before they came. ”

“ Thanks to the Maternity Benefit, a woman now knows she is provided for at the time.
I have had six children, all living, and what a terrible time it is, to be sure, especially during the last two months—only just enough to live on and another coming. The mental strain in addition to bodily labour must surely affect the child. I think a woman in that state should have all the rest that is possible. I did fairly well for a working man’s wife, but the recollection is anything but pleasant. Fancy bending over a washing-tub, doing the family washing perhaps an hour or two before baby is born. ”

“ My mother dying when I was three years old, I had no one to turn to for advice. I had spent all my youth in the country, and came as a stranger into a strange place, knowing no one but the man I married. My first child was a very delicate child, but I have often thought since that perhaps I had not done all things that were wise, but that would be for want of knowledge. I think a mother is a peculiarity during pregnancy, for I myself never seemed to want anything I had cooked myself, and if I went to any other house I could have eaten the poorest of foods. ”

“ I have recently visited one of our prisons, and find that the greatest number of women and girls who have fallen through drink have commenced to form this habit with it being given to them when young girls, and again when they become mothers. Of course, we know it is a weakness, but when a mother, nurse, or doctor could just as well give them many things which would do far more good for them, and save them from this. If we could only rise up in a body, we Guildwomen, and close the wine lodges, we could save our young women! ”

“ If it could be made possible, I really think mothers should have practically nothing to do with heavy work three months before childbirth and three months after—that is, if life is to be made worth living. But at present we have to clean down thoroughly ready for the event, till I have found myself wondering if death would not be a release. What with worry and feeling bad, I am never surprised at hearing of an expectant mother committing suicide. If she has two or three tiny children, she never has a minute’s rest, if she is an energetic housewife. ”

“ Can we wonder that so many women take drugs, hoping to get rid of the expected child, when they know so little regarding their own bodies, and have to work so hard to keep or help to keep the children they have already got? If only the State would do something that would give all working mothers the assurance that during pregnancy, where needed, means would be provided whereby they could get an all-important rest before confinement, and that proper attention should be provided during and after so long as necessary. ”

“ The physical pain from the eczema, and working with raw and bleeding hands, threatened me with madness. I dare not tell a soul. I dare not even face it for some time, and then I knew I must fight this battle or go under. ”

“ Much of the suffering entailed in maternity, much of the damage to the life and health of women and children, would be got rid of if women married with some knowledge of what lay before them, and if they could obtain medical advice and supervision during the time of pregnancy and motherhood. It is not the women’s fault that they are ignorant, for the possibilities of knowledge have not been within their reach. ”

“ It should be noted that the essence of the Guild scheme is that municipal, not philanthropic, action is wanted. It is not charity, but the united action of the community of citizens which will remove a widespread social evil. The community is performing a duty, not bestowing a charity, in providing itself with the bare necessities for tolerable existence. That is why the end at which the Guild aims is that the mothers of the country shall find themselves as free to use a Municipal Maternity Centre as they are to use a Council School or a Public Library. ”

“ My mother, whom I loved with all my heart, brought fifteen little lives into the world; twelve are still living. I remember many a time she has gone without food before and after confinement, and without fire in winter. ”

“ The motives of this strike are admirably given in the following words from Letter No. 71, the whole of which is very illuminating on this point: “All the beautiful in motherhood is very nice if one has plenty to bring up a family on, but what real mother is going to bring a life into the world to be pushed into the drudgery of the world at the earliest possible moment?...” The fact that the decline in the birth-rate is greatest among the better-paid wage-earners is often said to prove that a growing love of ease and luxury is causing a declining birth-rate. ”

“ The Women’s Co-operative Guild, unresting in their efforts for the improvement of the conditions of working women, have rendered a most useful service in eliciting these letters and in making them public.
It is necessary to take action to solve the problems that here stand revealed, first for the elementary reason that a nation ought not to tolerate widespread suffering among its members, if there are measures by which that suffering can be obviated without indirectly causing worse. “Woman,” says Kant, “is an end in herself, and not merely a means to an end.” ”

“ Still, I feel that if more could be done to teach them how to care for their own health before the birth of the little ones we should have healthier and stronger children. How it can be done without hurting the mothers’ feelings is a very difficult problem, but I suffered so much before my first baby was born that perhaps I feel most strongly on the need of our sisters knowing how best to care for themselves. I am so glad the Maternity Scheme is being taken up so much more by Health Committees now since the Guild have worked for it. ”

“ Also, after confinement, I have been about again in a fortnight, which I should not advise young mothers now to do. I may say that I do think that getting up so soon is the cause of all the misplacements that we hear so much about. However, I am pleased to tell you that I am fortunate in having a considerate husband, which of course is something to be thankful for. My heart aches when I think of women who have brutes to contend with. In my opinion, women should have every kindness shown to them during pregnancy ”

“ The State has first to realise that if it wants citizens, and healthy citizens, it must make it possible for men and women to have families while living a full life themselves and giving a full life to their children. ”

“ During confinement I had a very hard time, and was a long time in recovering, and have always, since my first child, suffered from falling of the womb, although I had a doctor and midwife in the house three weeks. It is owing to working women having to take on household duties too soon after confinement that is responsible for the greatest part of the sufferings which we are subject to. What is really wanted is a supply of real good midwives who could be got for a month to see to all requirements of the patient and the home while the woman has a fair chance of recovering. ”

“ Then when it has been over I have had to begin to do my housework at the fortnight end, and I think that is too soon, but what can women do when they have not the means to do it with? Of course, I am not half so bad as some. I have never carried a baby out to nurse. I have always managed to stop at home one year and get them walking. But I think if we as women had our right, we should not have to work at all during pregnancy, because I think that both the mother and baby would be better. ”

“ The result is she begins to take drugs. I need hardly tell you the pain and suffering she goes through if the baby survives, or the shock it is to the mother when she is told there is something wrong with the baby. She feels she is to blame if she has done this without her husband knowing, and she is living in dread of him. All this tells on the woman physically and mentally; can you wonder at women turning to drink? If the child lives to grow up, you find it hysterical and with very irritable, nasty ways when in the company of other children. ”

“ There is, of course, a wide divergence of opinion as to the result of this conscious check upon the growth of population; some regard it as the clearest solution of the inextricable tangle in which the industrial system has enmeshed humanity, others see in it the suicide of a nation and the doom of a race. ”