MARYANNE: Were you concerned during the labour, when it was going so long? Do you recall the pushing part? When you were pushing the baby? Did that seem to take a long time?

MRS D: Yes, it did.

MARYANNE: That was the tough part. Do you remember, if this isn’t too private, what kind of position you were in, were you lying down?

MRS D: I was lying down flat in bed. Every time I pushed I pushed my head back.

KAREN: Do you know what, I did the same thing.

MRS D: Did you?

KAREN: Yeah, I was kind of climbing away from the pain. The nurse kept telling me, “Come down, come down, you have to push into it.”

MRS D: That’s what Grandma said, “Don’t do that.”

KAREN: They didn’t tell me I’d get a thyroid or anything, but they did tell me, “Come back, come back, you’ve gotta do this.” It was like I was trying to get away from it.

MRS D: But grandma did tell me that she was worried.

KAREN: So how many hours would that have been?

MRS D: I started Saturday morning and she wasn’t born until next day, around noon.

MARYANNE: About 24, more than that, about 27 hours.

MRS D: Well when the pains first started they weren’t that severe, they were just very light to bear, you know. Because I did hear that it was very painful and I thought, “Well, if it’s just like this it won’t be that bad.” The only painful part was the real birth.

MARYANNE: Do you remember the pains before that getting harder?

MRS D: Yes, they did. They did. They were longer periods of time.

MARYANNE: Do you remember were you able to sleep at all through the night?

MRS D: I don’t think so. I don’t think I slept.

MARYANNE: So during your pregnancy, then, mostly you cared for yourself?

MRS D: I did the same thing I would have done otherwise. I did all my work. I did the same kind of diet, I didn’t have any clue about diet. Nobody ever told me eat this or don’t eat that, you know. And even after she was born, I was nursing her, I ate everything, I didn’t eliminate any food of any kind.

KAREN: Did you feel generally healthy, throughout your pregnancy?

MRS D: Yes I did.

KAREN: You didn’t have any prenantal care? No doctors.

MRS D: No.

KAREN: That interests me, you know you said at the beginning you didn’t have the money for hospitals…

MRS D: Not for hospitals or doctors. You had to pay the doctor as well. And the hospital.

KAREN: I hadn’t thought…

MRS D: And even in ’45 when my next babies came I went to the doctor only once during the whole pregnancy. I was gaining too much weight, and the doctor put me on a diet. By then I knew about diets and stuff and I stayed on that stupid diet till the pregnancy was over.

MARYANNE: What kind of a diet was it, do you remember?

MRS D: Reducing diet. Actually I should have had more of certain foods like calcium foods. So I was very thin after the twins were born and they were, well, they were big, too. The two of them weighed 13 pounds, that’s big for twins.

MARYANNE: So they were about six and a half each…

MRS D: One was over seven and one was just under.

MARYANNE: That can be a normal weight for just one baby.

MRS D: I remember I couldn’t lay down. I had to have about three pillows behind me.

KAREN: After the first baby, I’ve been hearing that it was quite common to stay in bed for a while. Did you stay in bed?

MRS D: Well, maybe a day or two.

KAREN: A day or two? I’ve been hearing that it was common to stay in bed for ten days. One lady stayed in bed for ten days and then couldn’t walk after.

MRS D: That’s what happened to me in the hospital. When the twins were born. Of course I wasn’t going to stay home then and by then we did have an old car and my parents and my husband’s parents had a car and we drove up to… We had grandma at our house again, but we weren’t intending to stay home just in case something happened. So my water broke in the night and I said, “Let’s get going.” So we got up and took M___, our daughter, to Hanley, to one set of grandparents. And we went and picked up my mum and my grandma and we went to Saskatoon to City Hospital.

KAREN: From Hanley?

MRS D: From Hawarden, that was. That’s another twenty miles from Hanley.

MARYANNE: That’s north? That’s south?

MRS D: That’s south.

KAREN: How long a journey would that be? You were in labour?

MRS D: Well, I didn’t have any labour. Just the water broke. The water was coming. I went to Saskatoon in my pajamas actually, with a whole bunch of rags and stuff to catch all this water. By the time we got to Saskatoon I still had no labour. So then the nurses put me into bed and I still had no labour and, of course, they did what they had to do to see if everything was normal and they were hearing two heartbeats. I didn’t know till then that I was having twins. I thought it was different, you know, a lot more kicking, a lot more differences. (Laughter) But I wasn’t worried about twins. Anyhow, about twelve o’clock they got me walking. They just got me walking down the halls and then the labour came. I’m sure it didn’t take more than half an hour or so before I was in the labour room.

MARYANNE: That must have been nice, compared to the first one.

MRS D: Of course, I didn’t know anything. They put me out. I knew something happened. I opened my eyes in between the two babies but I didn’t know what was going on really, until after they were done and they brought these two naked babies to show me. (Laughs)

KAREN: So that’s interesting, you had an anesthetic in the hospital?

MRS D: They must have given me something.

KAREN: They didn’t ask you?

Every time I heard this, I was astonished. I’m still astonished by it.

MRS D: No. I can’t remember them asking me anything about an anesthetic.

KAREN: How did you feel about that when you woke up? How do you feel about that now?

MRS D: I really didn’t think about it.

KAREN: Do you think about it now?

MRS D: (Laughing) Why should I? It’s all gone by.

KAREN: So how would you compare the two experiences? The home birth that went on so long and the hospital birth that, you know… ?

MRS D: Well, I certainly preferred the hospital one.

KAREN: You did, eh?

MRS D: Mm, hmm. Only thing is, I wouldn’t recommend anybody to go to the doctor once and then… (Laughs) To stay on a diet all nine months.

MARYANNE: The doctor didn’t know at that time?

MRS D: No, I went there when I was about three months pregnant.

MARYANNE: Oh, too soon.

MRS D: Yeah, and everything was fine, he just thought I was gaining too much weight and gave me this diet to follow.

KAREN: And you did?

MRS D: I did.

KAREN: Good for you. (Laughing) I couldn’t have.

MRS D: (laughing) I did. I lost a lot of weight. I was a skinny one when I had them.

KAREN: And yet the twins were still big babies.