"Motherhood is a gift of God" The story of my Grandma's first birth in 1959

     
      I was 25 years old in 1959 when our first baby was born.  I was working in the Accounts Receivable Department in Bedford, Ohio at the time.  We had been married for 1 l/2 years.  I got pregnant in April of 1958.  I announced at work I was pregnant and my supervisor told me I had to quit work at 4 months when I started showing. That was the rule then!  My friends gave me a baby shower in the Bedford Metro Park.  I received a baby stroller.

My Mom and Dad knew I had to quit work so they ask me to go with them on a trip out west and help them with the driving.  I had a good friend, Ann, who had come to the U.S earlier the previous year from Scotland and I ask her to come with us.  I was showing, having been about 5 months along then.  I felt the baby move when we were sitting down for breakfast in ___________.  I wrote postcards almost every day back to my husband and told him that day I felt the baby move.  (I still have those postcards!). 

On January 30, 1959 was just like every other day, except sometime early afternoon I felt some little twitches and I knew it was getting close to my delivery date.  I called the doctor, Dr. Glove, and he told me to time the labor and come to the hospital after 5 minutes between the labor pains.  I made hamburgers and we had dinner about 5:30 p.m.  Then the labor started again and I timed them.  We probably left for the hospital around 7:00 p.m. going to St. Luke’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio.  When I arrived at the hospital, I was taken to a room.  I undressed and lay in a bed in a room with a couple more women, who were also soon to deliver.  My husband was able to visit with me in this room before I was taken to the delivery room.  I remember throwing my dinner up, he said part of it went on him.  He was told to wait in the waiting room and they would call him!   When I was dilated enough, I was taken to the delivery room and given an epidural or spinal anesthesia or saddle block to block the pain.  I remember not being able to feel anything below my waist.  The baby had to be delivered with forceps.  His head was somewhat  misshapen.  He was a beautiful baby with lots of red hair.  I was taken to a private room and Dr. Glove called for my husband to see the baby before he was taken to the nursery.  They later brought the baby to me and I tried to nurse him but I couldn’t.  He was put on a bottle with powdered Similac.  I was in the hospital for 6 days.  The baby was brought to me probably every 3-4 hours so I could feed him.  I didn’t even have him overnight!  The nurses put little beaded bracelets on his arm for identification.  I kept that bracelet for 40 years and recently gave it to our son.  I had a footprint on a document, which is still done today I believe.

We brought our baby home to our little one bedroom apartment where I lovingly  took care of him, giving him a bath on a little table we had set up in the front room covered by blankets, we took him on outings to see the grand-parents where he met great-grandparents, aunts and uncles and one cousin.  We went to the park.  I so enjoyed being a mother.  Two years later we were blessed with our second son, then our daughter and then another son.  Motherhood is a gift of God.