This reminded me of my mother who had told me about age ten to not get worried if I ever started bleeding, I was 13 when it started and calmly mentioned it to her, and she explained ways women dealt with it. I do remember a girl at school who wasn't told ahead of time so she really did think something had went terribly wrong.
I can't imagine how terrifying that would be! I really liked how the books I looked into about this all stressed the importance of explaining it to their children and also I really liked how they put the blame on parents excusing not doing so as "false modesty" or "wicked delicacy". The words are harsh but often true.
My grandmother was a sewer and a midwife. The knitted band like yours was in her “collection.” She said people added folded “rags” to the band, and extra (petticoats) “slips” to protect their clothes. Thank G she was always interested in things normal people would not talk about! She used to follow around her grandmother who was born in 1858 and was a midwife too. 😊
@@KatelynKearns If my mother (who knew what they were) didn’t throw it out, it went to the Jordan, NY historical society. I’m not sure if they kept it hidden in a box, or tossed them. I liked that a woman could make her belt as wide as she needed. Good childbearing hips are wide, so the crotch space between the legs is wider too, something modern pad makers should pay more attention toward.(rant done now) Both my grandmother and her sister (who became a doctor) stressed that life was extremely difficult for women around childbirth. Women had to have many female relatives to support them. The blood flow after birth was easier to manage if the mother stayed in bed, this included women who had heavy periods. Many homes had little rooms behind the kitchen for these laying in periods. (Also useful for caring for a sick relative) My grandmother and aunt mentioned that women knew their periods would be lighter if they ate less. In the natural pecking order of an average household the men ate first, then the children, then the wife, then the “maiden “ aunt, and grandmother. The pecking order for food consumption naturally kept the weight off the adult women in the household. It also meant that in Darwin’s natural selection women survived to raise their own children and become grandmothers only if they could eat very little food, AND be a work powerhouse. (This goes a long way to explaining obesity in women now!) The roles of the aunts and grandmothers in the household also intrigues me. I’m sure the husbands were looking at these women as extra mouths to feed, but the wife saw them as her personal cheerleaders and the difference between life and death (not just for her but also for her children). It goes a long way to explaining the huge mortality rate of women and children in Western colonialism. It makes me think about how indigenous people’s natural matriarchal societies were destroyed. Yeah, I went down this rabbit hole from a historical sanitary belt.
It always frightens me about how women dealt with menstruation back then but I guess a lot were very thin and possibly had a lot lighter periods…myself there’s no way I could use the rag. I would have invented something bigger and I totally would have bled through those rags. So I’m hopeless back in that era. Thank goodness for modern pads for those with heavy flows.
My "rags" are quite long folded over many times to make a much thicker pad than a modern pad so even though I'm a heavy bleeder, I've never had leakage with the historic model!
This reminded me of my mother who had told me about age ten to not get worried if I ever started bleeding, I was 13 when it started and calmly mentioned it to her, and she explained ways women dealt with it. I do remember a girl at school who wasn't told ahead of time so she really did think something had went terribly wrong.
I can't imagine how terrifying that would be! I really liked how the books I looked into about this all stressed the importance of explaining it to their children and also I really liked how they put the blame on parents excusing not doing so as "false modesty" or "wicked delicacy". The words are harsh but often true.
This episode should definitely have been titled “Period Drama”!
OMG yes!
That's genius! I definitely should have called it that!
My grandmother was a sewer and a midwife. The knitted band like yours was in her “collection.” She said people added folded “rags” to the band, and extra (petticoats) “slips” to protect their clothes. Thank G she was always interested in things normal people would not talk about! She used to follow around her grandmother who was born in 1858 and was a midwife too. 😊
That's so cool! What happened to the knitted band after your grandmother had it? I bet she had some awesome stories!
@@KatelynKearns If my mother (who knew what they were) didn’t throw it out, it went to the Jordan, NY historical society. I’m not sure if they kept it hidden in a box, or tossed them. I liked that a woman could make her belt as wide as she needed. Good childbearing hips are wide, so the crotch space between the legs is wider too, something modern pad makers should pay more attention toward.(rant done now)
Both my grandmother and her sister (who became a doctor) stressed that life was extremely difficult for women around childbirth. Women had to have many female relatives to support them. The blood flow after birth was easier to manage if the mother stayed in bed, this included women who had heavy periods. Many homes had little rooms behind the kitchen for these laying in periods. (Also useful for caring for a sick relative)
My grandmother and aunt mentioned that women knew their periods would be lighter if they ate less. In the natural pecking order of an average household the men ate first, then the children, then the wife, then the “maiden “ aunt, and grandmother. The pecking order for food consumption naturally kept the weight off the adult women in the household. It also meant that in Darwin’s natural selection women survived to raise their own children and become grandmothers only if they could eat very little food, AND be a work powerhouse. (This goes a long way to explaining obesity in women now!)
The roles of the aunts and grandmothers in the household also intrigues me. I’m sure the husbands were looking at these women as extra mouths to feed, but the wife saw them as her personal cheerleaders and the difference between life and death (not just for her but also for her children). It goes a long way to explaining the huge mortality rate of women and children in Western colonialism. It makes me think about how indigenous people’s natural matriarchal societies were destroyed. Yeah, I went down this rabbit hole from a historical sanitary belt.
It always frightens me about how women dealt with menstruation back then but I guess a lot were very thin and possibly had a lot lighter periods…myself there’s no way I could use the rag. I would have invented something bigger and I totally would have bled through those rags. So I’m hopeless back in that era. Thank goodness for modern pads for those with heavy flows.
My "rags" are quite long folded over many times to make a much thicker pad than a modern pad so even though I'm a heavy bleeder, I've never had leakage with the historic model!
How fun! Love your attitude towards history, this is an endlessly fascinating topic for me. Subscribed!!
Welcome aboard! Thank you!
Very interesting, thank you for sharing your research. ❤
Thank you for watching!