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The Maternal Body: Pregnancy, Child-Rearing and Birth Control

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Bodies, Love, and Faith in the First World War

Part of the book series: Genders and Sexualities in History ((GSX))

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Abstract

This chapter focuses upon Gwyneth’s experience of pregnancy and childbirth, to show how she continued to view herself, and later her child, in distinctly sexualized terms, indicating a conversance with the ideas of Sigmund Freud. She invoked modern techniques of child-rearing as a distinct strategy to distinguish her ideas from the old-fashioned and less scientific ones propounded by her mother. Besides examining the way in which Harry and Gwyneth adopted modern ideas regarding birth control and parenthood, we demonstrate an increasing gulf between the generations, which revises existing notions of the lost generation in wartime Britain.

“How sporting of you to have a boy now that they are needs so much!”

Marjorie to Gwyneth, n.d. 1917

“But why is sex passion any more degrading than the mother’s passion for her children?”

A Rationalist, Freewoman, 22 Feb. 1912

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Quoted in Allen, Feminism and Motherhood in Western Europe, 122.

  2. 2.

    Quoted in Davin, “Imperialism and Motherhood”, 9–65, 29; Richardson, Love and Eugenics in the Late Nineteenth Century; Greenslade, Degeneration; Lewis, The Politics of Motherhood; Grayzel, Women’s Identities at War; Robb, “Race Motherhood”, 58–74. On maternalism and pronatalism during the war and its impact on welfare policy, see Koven and Michel, eds., Mother of a New World; Pedersen, Family, Dependence, and the Origins of the Welfare State; Christie, Engendering the State, 94–159. The Eugenics Review was replete with articles about motherhood and racial progress, but see, for example, J. Arthur Thomson, “Eugenics and War,” Eugenics Review, 7:1 (Apr. 1915), 1–14; Major Leonard Darwin, “Eugenics During and After the War,” Eugenics Review, 7:2 (July 1915), 91–106. More radical journals, such as The Freewoman, also contained many articles extolling motherhood. See, for example, Edmund B. D’Auvergne, “Marriage and Motherhood” (letter), The Freeman (7 Dec. 1911), 52.

  3. 3.

    Fissell, “Remaking the Maternal Body in England, 1680–1730”, 114–39, 131.

  4. 4.

    Key, Love and Marriage, 9.

  5. 5.

    Dobb, “The Way of All Flesh,” 591; Bland, Banishing the Beast, 248, 308.

  6. 6.

    Cameron and Forrester, “‘A Nice Type of the English Scientist’: Tansley and Freud,” in Daniel Pick and Lyndal Roper, eds., Dreams and History, 199–236, 204. Writers in the Eugenics Review appear to have been familiar with Freud’s theories of childhood sexuality. See M. Andrew “Book Reviews—The Sexual Life of the Child” [Dr. Albert Moll], Eugenics Review, 4:3 (Oct. 1912), 319–20. Moll was critical of Freud’s ideas.

  7. 7.

    Brooke, “The Body and Socialism”, 169.

  8. 8.

    Eugenics Review, 9:2 (July 1917), 95–108. See also Mary Scharlieb, “Adolescent Girlhood under Modern Conditions with Special Reference to Motherhood,” Eugenics Review, 1:3 (Oct. 1909), 174–83. On Norah March as a eugenicist, see McLaren, Reproduction by Design, 70; Fisher, Birth Control, Sex and Marriage, 29. On Scharlieb, see DeVries, “A Moralist and Modernizer”, 298–315; Jones, “Women and Eugenics in Britain”, 481–502.

  9. 9.

    LAC, LF, 10:5, G to H, 3 Nov. 1919.

  10. 10.

    LAC, LF, 8:1, G to H, 15 Oct. 1916, on the need to instil artistic gifts during the first two months of gestation. See Robb, “Race Motherhood,” 62.

  11. 11.

    Bourke, Fear, 84–6.

  12. 12.

    LAC, LF, 7:9, G to H, 26 June 1916.

  13. 13.

    Szreter, Fertility, Class and Gender in Britain, 404; Brooker, “Women and Reproduction, 1860–1939”, 149–71, 158.

  14. 14.

    LAC, LF, 2:8, H to G, 24 Jan. 1917.

  15. 15.

    LAC, LF, 2:11, H to G, 8 Apr. 1917.

  16. 16.

    LAC, LF, 8:4, G to H, 16 Feb. 1917.

  17. 17.

    LAC, LF, 8:1, G to H, 8 Oct. 1916.

  18. 18.

    LAC, LF, 14:19, Auntie Ros to H, 18 Apr. 1917; ibid., 9:2, G to H, 6 Feb. 1918.

  19. 19.

    LAC, LF, 7:10, G to H, 13 Aug. 1916.

  20. 20.

    LAC, LF, 7:10, G to H, 29 Aug. 1916.

  21. 21.

    LAC, LF, 8:1, G to H, 6 Nov. 1916.

  22. 22.

    LAC, LF, 7:10, G to H, 2 Sep. 1916.

  23. 23.

    LAC, LF, 8:1, G to H, 12 Nov. 1916, 28 Nov. 1916.

  24. 24.

    LAC, LF, 8:3, G to H, 9 Jan. 1917.

  25. 25.

    LAC, LF, 2:7, H to G, 3 Dec. 1916.

  26. 26.

    LAC, LF, 2:7, H to G, 13 Dec. 1916.

  27. 27.

    LAC, LF, 8:3, G to H, 12 Jan. 1917.

  28. 28.

    LAC, LF, 8:4, G to H, 7 Feb. 1917.

  29. 29.

    LAC, LF, 8:3, G to H, 13 Jan. 1917; ibid., 2:8, H to G, 24 Jan. 1917.

  30. 30.

    Lac, LF, 8:6, G to H, 5 Apr. 1917.

  31. 31.

    LAC, LF, 8:6, G to H, 10 Apr. 1917, 17 Apr. 1917.

  32. 32.

    LAC, LF, 14:20, Lady Ada Murray to H, 15 Apr. 1917.

  33. 33.

    LAC, 8:6, G to H, 18 Apr. 1917; ibid., 14:20, Lady Ada to H, 18 Apr. 1917. For an examination of nineteenth-century discourses about pain during childbirth, see Bourke, The Story of Pain, 208–14.

  34. 34.

    LAC, 8:11, G to H, 16 Oct. 1917; Ibid, 10:1 G to H, 17 Nov. 1918.

  35. 35.

    LAC, 8:8, G to H, 8 July 1917.

  36. 36.

    LAC, 2:10, H to G, 12 Apr. 1917.

  37. 37.

    LAC, LF, 8:4, G to H, 23 Feb. 1917.

  38. 38.

    LAC, LF, 2:9, H to G, 15 Feb. 1917.

  39. 39.

    LAC, LF, 2:9, H to G, 19 Feb. 1917.

  40. 40.

    LAC, LF, 8:6, G to H, 15 Apr. 1917.

  41. 41.

    LAC, LF, 8:4, G to H, 13 Feb. 1917.

  42. 42.

    LAC, LF, 8:4, G to H, 13 Feb. 1917.

  43. 43.

    LAC, LF, 2:10, H to G, 4 Apr. 1917.

  44. 44.

    There is now a large historical literature on the question of birth control in twentieth-century Britain. For major statements, see McLaren, A History of Contraception; Szreter, Fertility, Class and Gender; Cook, The Long Sexual Revolution; Fisher, Birth Control, Sex and Marriage in Britain; Szreter and Fisher, Sex Before the Sexual Revolution.

  45. 45.

    Dean W.R. Inge, “Some Moral Aspects of Eugenics,” Eugenics Review, 1:1 (Apr. 1909), 29–31.

  46. 46.

    Allen, Feminism and Motherhood, 124. Writers were particularly censorious of birth control during wartime and therefore dismissed Marie Stopes’ advocacy of it. See H. McKenna, “Review of Marie Carmichael Stopes Married Love: A New Contribution to the Solution of Sex Difficulties,” Eugenics Review, 10:4 (Jan. 1919), 237–8; Bernard M Hancock, “Love and Life,” Eugenics Review, 11:4 (Jan. 1920), 231.

  47. 47.

    Fisher, Birth Control, Sex and Marriage, 202–3, 207–9. For women’s leading role in birth control, see Cook, The Long Sexual Revolution.

  48. 48.

    LAC, LF, 8:4, G to H, 2 Feb. 1917.

  49. 49.

    LAC, LF, 3:5, H to G, 7 Sep. 1917.

  50. 50.

    LAC, LF, 8:3, G to H, 30 Jan. 1917.

  51. 51.

    LAC, LF, 2:9, H to G, 7 Feb. 1917; ibid., 8:4, G to H, 12 Feb. 1917.

  52. 52.

    Fisher, Birth Control, Sex and Marriage, 131–3, 166–7.

  53. 53.

    E.S.P. Haynes, “Sex and Civilisation,” The Freeman (15 Feb. 1912), 247; LAC, LF, 8:9, G to H, 26 Aug. 1917. This seems to be at odds with her constant references to menstruation or Dardo making her egg basket, so that he could time his leave accordingly. On the medical discourse surrounding menstruation, see Strange, “Menstrual Fictions”, 607–28.

  54. 54.

    LAC, LF, 9:1, G to H, 31 Dec. 1917.

  55. 55.

    LAC, LF, 9:2, G to H, 28 Feb. 1918.

  56. 56.

    LAC, LF, 10:4, G to H, 10 Mar. 1919, 30 Sep. 1919.

  57. 57.

    LAC, LF, 5:4, H to G, 24 Nov. 1918; ibid., 5:10, H to G, 27 Mar. 1919.

  58. 58.

    LAC, LF, 8:7, H to G, 23 June 1917.

  59. 59.

    Quoted in Hall, ed., Outspoken Women, 187.

  60. 60.

    Szreter, Fertility, Class and Gender, 371, 389, 398–9.

  61. 61.

    Modern Man, 21 Sep. 1912. Penny Tinkler has identified this phenomenon with the 1920s, when it was popularized. See Constructing Girlhood, 146.

  62. 62.

    LAC, LF, 2:4, H to G, 22 Aug. 1916.

  63. 63.

    LAC, LF, 8:6, G to H, 16 Apr. 1917.

  64. 64.

    LAC, LF, 8:6, G to H, 20 May 1917.

  65. 65.

    LAC, LF, 3:1, H to G, 19 June 1917.

  66. 66.

    LAC, LF, 4:1, H to G, 30 Jan. 1918; ibid., 18:7, Rosfrith to Mrs. Logan, 23 Nov. 1917.

  67. 67.

    LAC, LF, 8:8, G to H, 21 July 1917.

  68. 68.

    LAC, LF, 14:20, Lady Ada to H, 29 Apr. 1917; ibid., 18:1, Mary Glover to Mrs Logan, 8 May 1917.

  69. 69.

    LAC, LF, 8:1, G to H, 30 Oct. 1916. She made this observation after having tea with her friend Mac, Norah March, the eugenicist.

  70. 70.

    E.W. MacBride, “The Study of Heredity—II,” Eugenics Review, 8:2 (July 1916), 137–57.

  71. 71.

    LAC, LF, 8:2, G to H, 16 Dec. 1916.

  72. 72.

    LAC, LF, 3:1, H to G, 28 Aug. 1917.

  73. 73.

    LAC, LF, H to G, 5 Feb. 1918.

  74. 74.

    LAC, LF, 18:4, G to Mrs. Logan, 30 Apr. 1917.

  75. 75.

    LAC, LF, 8:6, G to H, 19 Apr. 1917.

  76. 76.

    LAC, LF, 8:6, G to H, 20 Apr. 1917.

  77. 77.

    Helen George, “Maternitis,” The New Age (11 Feb. 1909), 322. On the sexual pleasure found in nursing during the eighteenth century, see Perry, “Colonizing the Breast”, 204–34.

  78. 78.

    LAC, LF, 8:11, G to H, 21 Oct. 1917. King, Feeding and Care of Baby. On King, see Smith, Mothers and King Baby. Gwyneth clearly did not subscribe to the Victorian advice that sexual emotion would deteriorate the quality of her milk. See Christina Hardyment, Dream Babies, 95.

  79. 79.

    LAC, LF, 8:9, G to H, 22 Aug. 1917.

  80. 80.

    LAC, LF, 8:6, G to H, 19 Apr. 1917, 1 May 1917; ibid., 8:11, G to H, 26 Oct. 1917.

  81. 81.

    March, Towards Racial Health, 29–33. She also introduced the concept of homosexuality, 79.

  82. 82.

    LAC, LF, 9:1, G to H, 31 Jan. 1918. See Roudinesco, Freud in His Time and Ours, 109. We are grateful to Professor Deryck M. Schreuder for drawing this book to our attention.

  83. 83.

    LAC, LF, 8:10, G to H, 5 Sep. 1917.

  84. 84.

    LAC, LF, 10:1, G to H, 1 Nov. 1918.

  85. 85.

    C.W. Saleeby, “Psychology of Parenthood,” Eugenics Review, 1:1 (Apr. 1909), 42; Alice Ravenhill, “Eugenic Ideals for Womanhood,” Eugenics Review, 2:4 (Jan. 1910), 271–2.

  86. 86.

    LAC, LF, 8:6, G to H, 15 May, 23 May 1917.

  87. 87.

    LAC, LF, 8:5, G to H, 7 Mar. 1917.

  88. 88.

    LAC, LF, 8:1, G to H, 29 Oct. 1916.

  89. 89.

    LAC, LF, 17:16, Mac to my dearest Alice, 20 Apr. 1917.

  90. 90.

    LAC, LF, 8:9, G to H, 18 Aug. 1917, 23 Aug. 1917. She also appreciated Mary Scharlieb’s What Mothers Must Tell Their Children for its advocacy of sex education.

  91. 91.

    LAC, LF, 9:3, G to H, 15 Mar. 1918.

  92. 92.

    The large gap in age between youngest and oldest siblings resembles that which obtained in the Strachey family, where there were ten children born over a thirty-year span. See Caine, Bombay to Bloomsbury, 83.

  93. 93.

    LAC, LF, 9:4, G to H, 10 Oct. 1918.

  94. 94.

    LAC, LF, 9:2, G to H, 29 Jan. 1918.

  95. 95.

    LAC, LF, 8:6, G to H, 9 May, 15 May 1917.

  96. 96.

    LAC, LF, 8:8, G to H, 3 July 1917. He was three months old at this time.

  97. 97.

    LAC, LF, 9:1, G to H, 30 Jan. 1918.

  98. 98.

    For a discussion of new childrearing ideas that blamed mothers if the child was fearful, see Bourke, Fear, 89.

  99. 99.

    LAC, LF, 9:5, G to H, 9 May 1918.

  100. 100.

    H. Lambourne, “Finding Yourself,” Modern Man, 27 Mar. 1909.

  101. 101.

    LAC, LF, 10:4, G to H, 13 Oct. 1919.

  102. 102.

    LAC, LF, 18:5, G to Mrs. Logan, 6 Sep. 1917; ibid., 8:6, G to H, 24 Apr. 1917.

  103. 103.

    LAC, LF, 8:3, G to H, 28 Jan. 1917. For these older discourses privileging fathers as responsible for the moral and religious development of offspring, see Christie, “Proper Government and Discipline”, 389–412.

  104. 104.

    This was a frequent theme in his correspondence, but see LAC, LF, 9:2, G to H, 3 Feb. 1918.

  105. 105.

    Fletcher, Growing Up in England, 368. For persistent attitudes to child discipline following World War I, see King, Family Men, 17, 52–5.

  106. 106.

    LAC, LF, 3:1, H to G, 27 Aug. 1917; ibid., 3:5, H to G, 2 Sep. 1917.

  107. 107.

    LAC, LF, 4:1, H to G, 3 Feb. 1918; ibid., 4:10, H to G, 11 Mar. 1917.

  108. 108.

    LAC, LF, 5:4, H to G, 30 Nov. 1918.

  109. 109.

    Brandon, The New Women and the Old Men, 208.

  110. 110.

    LAC, LF, 2:1, H to G, 28 July 1915.

  111. 111.

    “The Father’s Part,” Modern Man, 22 Mar. 1909; LAC, LF, 1:2, H to G, 1 Sep. 1911.

  112. 112.

    LAC, LF, 2:10, H to G, 22 Mar. 1917.

  113. 113.

    LAC, LF, 3:3, H to G, 2 July 1917.

  114. 114.

    LAC, LF, 3:1, H to G, 20 Aug. 1917.

  115. 115.

    LAC, LF, 9:2, G to H, 12 Feb. 1918.

  116. 116.

    LAC, LF, 10:4, G to H, 20 Mar. 1919.

  117. 117.

    LAC, LF, 9:2, G to H, 27 Jan. 1918. On the unmanliness of pushing a pram within working-class British culture, see Strange, Fatherhood and the British Working Class, 167.

  118. 118.

    LAC, LF, 9:2, G to H, 14 Feb. 1918.

  119. 119.

    LAC, LF, 8:9, G to H, 31 Aug. 1917.

  120. 120.

    LAC, LF, 8:6, G to H, 8 May 1917.

  121. 121.

    LAC, LF, 3:5, H to G, 25 Sep. 1917; ibid., 2:10, H to G, 8 Apr. 1917.

  122. 122.

    LAC, LF, 4:1, H to G, 6 Feb. 1917.

  123. 123.

    LAC, LF, 4:9, H to G, 13 July 1918.

  124. 124.

    LAC, LF, 5:2, H to G, 22 Sep. 1918.

  125. 125.

    LAC, LF, 8:9, H to G, 30 Aug. 1917. Freud had developed the theory of the Oedipus complex between 1910 and 1913 in a number of essays later published under the title Totem and Taboo. See Roudinesco, Freud, 164–5.

  126. 126.

    LAC, LF, 5:2, H to G, 5 Oct. 1918.

  127. 127.

    On the prevalence of talk rather than actual sexual enjoyment, particularly by Strachey, see Taddeo, Lytton Strachey, 109; Caine, Bombay to Bloomsbury, 138.

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  1. University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Nancy Christie

  2. McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Michael Gauvreau

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Christie, N., Gauvreau, M. (2018). The Maternal Body: Pregnancy, Child-Rearing and Birth Control. In: Bodies, Love, and Faith in the First World War. Genders and Sexualities in History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72835-3_7

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