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23
clothing her husband. As soon as possible after her confinement
she resumes her usual occupation as a bookfolder, laundry hand,
street hawker, charwoman, office cleaner, ironer, machinist, or
making cardboard boxes, paper bags, or artificial flowers.
Many mothers arc homeworkers, and continue their work, for
example, mounting artificial flowers, even when lying-in, on the
third or fourth day after they have been confined.
On a previous page, it has been shown that forty-five per cent,
of all the women in Finsbury, between 20 and 65 years, are
employed in some occupation ; between 20 and 25 years of age the
proportion of the women employed is 72 per cent.
In 1913, 430 mothers resumed work within eight or twelve weeks
of the date of birth of the last child in each case. Some have to
do this in order to pay for the furniture and equipment which they
have purchased for their confinements. Many work right up to
the day on which they are taken in labour; some work during the
lying-in.
Too often it happens that the mother is the only one in the
family who has regular employment; the husband is an odd man
or casually employed. The mother is out at work, the father is
out, and stated to be looking for work.
It is not at all uncommon for a mother to say that her "husband
keeps rowing her because she hasn't gone back to work." It is
the mother who has to work to pay all the back debts that have
accumulated during her lying-in. When the mother works it
sometimes happens that the husband "stops" the amount she
earns from the money he gives to his wife. But when the husband
is out of work the mother has to support the whole family.
The mother's work and its attendant worry frequently result in
the loss of her breast milk, and the child's nutrition suffers.
Many mothers did not know where their husabnds worked or
what they earned.