I have a pregnant character in my pseudo-Victorian-London fantasy WIP, which has led to reading 19th Century advice books about pregnancy and the lying in. https://www.victorianweb.org/science/maternity/uvic/7.html has links to quite a few of the manuals.

So far, my favourite is by William Bull, 1865, in which he explains that, while some women claim labour is excruciating, it doesn't seem that painful to him, and what do women in labour even want chloroform for anyway?

Reading through the whole chapter, it is apparent that he firmly believes that if women were doing it right, it wouldn't hurt. You only have your weak little minds to blame, ladies. 1/

#writing #AmResearching #VictorianEra #pregnancy #history #AdviceBooks