One of my strongest memories from being pregnant with Little Miss C is actually the first time that my mum and I went shopping for “baby things”. I’d met up with her and my Dad in central London for the day and after a cuppa and a cake we headed off to a certain well know Oxford Street department store’s nursery department.
At the time I had friends who had recently had kids and despite only being a mum to be I had a bit of an idea as to what was available these days that came under the “baby paraphernalia” category, however I think my mum’s jaw hit the floor as we came up the escalator and she had a first sight of everything there was on offer. It’s fair to say that things have changed a fair bit since she had me and my sister!
Looking back it’s easy to think that the changes in motherhood (or indeed parenthood) between our parents’ generation and our own is huge, but actually if you look at it some of what I think would have been even bigger changes happened much earlier than I realised. As a follow up to World Breast Feeding Week (which was 1 – 7 August 2014) Benenden Health have put together an infographic on the evolution of motherhood and it’s actually pretty fascinating reading.
I honestly had no idea that the pram was invented as long ago as 1733, or that you could buy a baby monitor as far back as 1937 (especially as my Mum tells me she never used one for me). One date I do recall though – 1978 for the birth of the first “test tube baby”. Easy to remember as it was the same year that I was born. Yet I know so many women since then that have gone on to have children through IVF and it’s strange to think that this is something that has only become possible in my lifetime.
The final statistic on there about breastfeeding is shocking though. I think I’m incredibly lucky living in a place that’s incredibly child friendly so that I never suffered any negativity when breastfeeding my two, but it’s sad to think that something so natural isn’t always accepted. I just hope that this changes and that any future surveys show a different set of results.
Disclaimer: This featured post was brought to you in association with Benenden.
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