MRS P: The kids now know as soon as their mother is pregnant, their mother tells them. If my mother would have told us we would have helped her, she must have been sick too, but we didn’t know that. She (unclear) which we didn’t go out of our way, we did what we had to do and that was it, but then we would have helped her more.

MARYANNE: So when you had that first baby your mother-in-law was there, was your husband there too?

MRS P: Oh yeah.

MARYANNE: Was he helpful?

MRS P: He was talking to us about (unclear, but after this comment both Mrs P and Maryanne laughed)

MARYANNE: But he was around?

MRS P: Oh yeah he was there.

MARYANNE: Oh I see. So what kind of things would she tell him to do?
MRS P: Well, first of all he had to take a hold of my hands, and I sure held his hands I’ll tell you! Some say they cry and moan, I couldn’t. I don’t remember too much with my first one.

MARYANNE: Was it a very difficult birth?

MRS P: No, it was (unclear). Sure you had a lot of pain before it was born, but of course you forget that.

MARYANNE: Yes, I have had four babies and you forget that pain. So what did your mother-in-law do to prepare for the baby, do you remember the types of things she would do?

MRS P: All I remember is that she brought a lot of clean cloths, that’s all I really remember.

MARYANNE: Did she boil water?

MRS P: Oh yes.

MARYANNE: Do you remember how she would cut the cord?

MRS P: No, I didn’t see that. No, I don’t know what she did. I just know she (unclear).The baby didn’t cry so she (unclear) water, she said it needed to cry, she said it was supposed to cry.

MARYANNE: I guess to get the breath in. So, then you didn’t use any type of drugs or anything like that to help you with the pain?

MRS P: No.

M You felt you coped with the pain.

MRS P: Oh yeah.

MARYANNE: You didn’t feel that it was too hard?

MRS P: Oh, at the time sure you do, you just wish it would get there and get it over with. When I had that one I asked my mother-in-law, I said, “I still have got another pain,” and I thought another would come, but there wasn’t.

MARYANNE: Right, so after that, the afterbirth, did you know what to expect with that?

MRS P: She said that had to come too.

MARYANNE: Were there any problems at all?

MRS P: No.

MARYANNE: Had you talked to anybody else while you were pregnant, about having a baby?

MRS P: Well you’re with others that were pregnant, but no, not really.

MARYANNE: Did your mother-in-law tell you anything?

MRS P: No, we didn’t talk, she just said she would look after me and I ordered napkins because (unclear) and the neighbours brought me some old diapers and then when I got mine I gave these old ones back and that is something I should have never done because I only bought twelve. I could have really used those diapers.

MARYANNE: You must have been washing every day.

MRS P: Yeah, and a lot of times I had (unclear)

MARYANNE: So you felt confident that things would go okay?

MRS P: Yeah, I wasn’t worried about that.

MARYANNE: So you chose to have the baby at home, did you say you were you thinking of going to Nipawin?

MRS P: Oh yeah… (unclear)

MARYANNE: How did you feel about it turning out that way?

MRS P: Well, I didn’t think … (unclear)

MARYANNE: So in those days there was no medicare, so you didn’t have to pay a doctor (meaning: because Mrs P had her baby at home, paying for a doctor wasn’t an issue.) If you had gone to the hospital would you have had to pay?

MRS P: Ah, well I don’t know. I guess you would have. And then the doctor you would have to pay. We had to give him $5.00, but I don’t know for what.

MARYANNE: Did he ever come out and see you?

MRS P: Oh no, it was too far. (At the beginning, she says there was a doctor who came to the home. Maybe only once?)

MARYANNE: So then your second baby, once you had one at home then you thought that this would be okay?

MRS P: Mm-hmm, oh yeah. And then I thought (unclear) for the second one it was just so cold.

MARYANNE: And the second baby came when, in the wintertime?

MRS P: Oh yeah, in December, two of them were born then.

MARYANNE: So you probably weren’t thinking much of traveling to Nipawin. How would you have travelled? Did you have vehicles or sleighs?

MRS P: Oh yeah, and sleighs and all that.

MARYANNE: So you weren’t worried about that. So how did that second birth go?

MRS P: Oh that went all right too. She (unclear) which we didn’t go out of our way, we did what (unclear) forget that pain.