My local PBS station said that "The Midwives* was set in 1957 in Poplar, in the East End of London. I was brought up in that area, about 2 miles away in Stepney Green, and would have been about 12 years old at that time. My own mother gave birth to both me and my younger sister in a maternity home, the equivalent of a birthing center in the USA. When I asked about our births, she would only say that she was grateful for the twilight sleep and that when my turn came, I would forget the pain when I held my baby in my arms. Apparently, she never did forget the pain :( I remember my mother going into the bedroom to nurse my sister, but that only lasted for a couple of weeks at most before she was switched to formula. I know that my mother tried to nurse me, but she was only allowed to do so for a few minutes on one side only every four hours (except at night,) and them instructed to *top me off* with formula. No wonder that when she was released after the usual 10 day stay, she was told she did not have enough milk. She told me that during her entire hospital stay the nurses watched her vigilantly to make sure she never took off any of the swaddling in which I was wrapped. Hmmm... The *formula* on which my sister and I were fed came in a tall, cylindrical cardboard container labelled *National Dried Milk.* If was given out - free, I believe - at the local well-baby clinics, which mothers attended every week to get their babies weighed. I remember that it is was a blue package which pronounced the contents to contain dried milk powder, 4% fat. The instructions said to mix it with water and sugar. Both orange juice and cod liver oil were also given to babies to make up for any vitamin deficiencies. Those cylindrical were used and reused, so they were always in evidence in our apartment, even years after the original contents had been consumed. I still have the baby book my mother was given after my birth, with instructions for breastfeeding. Funnily enough, artificial feeding is barely mentioned, but the expectation was that all babies would be completely weaned from breast or bottle by 9 months of age. Norma Ritter, IBCLC, RLC Breastfeeding Matters in the Capital Region www.NormaRitter.com Join us on Facebook for the latest birthing and breastfeeding news and views: http://tinyurl.com/BMCRonFB *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome