Edelweiss Patterns Disclaimer: Please do not attempt any of the advice or vintage exercises shown in this article without first consulting your medical professional! This article is solely for the purpose of historical documentation.
Vintage Post-Partum Exercises
As promised in last week’s retro workout article, I’m sharing some rare vintage exercise publications with a unique twist – they’re all specifically for post-partum mothers! I want to stress that if you’ve just had a baby, you’re amazing! The most important thing a new mother can do is to take good care of herself and not rush the process of getting back to any one specific size. With that being said, I thought it would be fun to publish some vintage images from my collection with you all, to share a glimpse of how ladies lived in the 1950s after bringing their “bundles of joy” home from the hospital.
The first article for today features Jeanne Crain, the actress who starred in films such as State Fair (1945) and Cheaper by the Dozen.
The 1952 article reads:
After the birth of her baby, busy Jeanne Crain had no time to lose regaining her lovely figure. She knew that diet alone wasn’t the answer; so, with her doctor’s permission and advice, she began simple muscle-tightening exercises in the hospital, added new ones when she got home… {This advice contradicts last week’s diet advice of “cut calories for weight loss” for one key reason – muscle tone had obviously changed during pregnancy and therefore the need to get one’s body back into shape had nothing to do with food.}
You can click on the photos above to read the entire article, but you’ll notice the last exercise is one that will be repeated in the next post-baby vintage advice column below. I have also heard this exercise on a vintage exercise record and find it is both difficult (if done properly), and effective!
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“After the Baby”
This next article was written by Jane Cartwright in 1957, a mother of three and vintage model who eventually became an artist. Please note that I do not recommend attempting to shrink down to the measurements she quotes! Unfortunately the modeling world has always had ridiculous ideals when it comes to size. Add to this the fact that women (and men) often had smaller frames/bone structures 70 years ago, and you arrive at a body image that is just not realistic today. Nevertheless, it’s likely these at-home exercises are still much kinder to women than the gruelling workouts many new moms perform today.
The Exercises:
This side to side arm movement is repeated in many of the publications I wrote about last week, and on a vintage exercise record I have from the 1940s.
I love the leg lifting exercises – they’re so much like ballet floor warmups, and they really work your entire lower body!
The exercise directly above was quite popular in the 50s – I have it repeated on a vintage exercise record and numerous exercise books. For the ballerina it will be quite easy to do! For those who haven’t done ballet, it may take a bit of practice to get your leg extended so far without bending either knee, but it’s well worth it!
The Article:
It’s interesting that before people understood post-partum depression, they still were aware of something they called the “baby blues”. I like Jane’s advice to do your hair, take the baby outside, get some fresh air, and remind yourself that you and your baby are not the only two people on planet earth! 😉 It’s good old-fashioned advice that’s still as helpful today as it was 70 years ago. And what a nice husband to take her dancing! I just hope she got permission from her doctor first. 😉
Jane mentions sleeping on her front to get her “tummy” back into shape – this must have been standard advice for new mothers in the 50s, because I find the same thing repeated in Anita Colby’s Beauty Book that we discussed last week.
Jane Cartwright ended up having a 61 year marriage to her husband, and seems from this article to have been a very happy woman. 🙂 I love it when I’m able to discover more up-to-date information online about a vintage lady I “found” in a magazine or book from decades ago!
So that’s the advice our grandmothers grew up on! I would love to hear from anyone else who has memories or information on this subject.
Until next time,
Katrina Holte
My grandma had grown up the pampered youngest child and favorite of her mother. So being treated special was always a mood booster for her. According to my grandma, when she had her children in 1954 and 1958, she spent a week in the hospital afterwards. Nurses made sure that baby was doing all it needed to, and the new mother was allowed to rest and bask in people helping you.
(my mother said: what on earth could you do in bed for a week? When she was told this, so very different mindsets!)
I love this series youve been posting! And I love how most of these exercises are for core strength and more general whole-body fitness.
Hello, Tegan,
Wow, that’s fascinating! A whole week is definitely so much longer than new mothers get these days! I worry about new mothers in America who are expected to be “superwomen”. People expect them to be up and about almost immediately, hosting scores of guests to see the new baby, and running after their older children before their bodies gave had time to recover. A week-long hospital stay really would have been a safe-guard against the temptation to jump back into busyness.
Thank you for the comment, and have a wonderful day!
Katrina Holte
This is really interesting! I do agree there is too much pressure to just bounce back into pre-baby shape. I’ve felt it myself. I’ve only started to really slim down the last month (6 mos post partum) though the weight began vanishing immediately. It’s interesting how quite a few of these exercises are similar to stretches/yoga poses suggested today. I wish I had had a week to rest since I had to have an emergency hospital birth and delivered a nearly 10 lb baby, but life goes on! My midwife said take it easy for 6 weeks, I said, you mean 3 days?? I did that!
Wifey, thank you for your input! Yes, I think you’re right – a lot of these exercises are akin to yoga or pilates. Honestly, I feel that these are a lot better for women than heavy weight lifting or running miles on the hard cement till you’re completely out of breath. It’s great to hear from women who realize they need to be kind to themselves!
I will also add that the old advice to only gain 20-25 lbs during pregnancy made it much easier to lose the weight quickly. Thankfully they have now realized that your body knows what it needs. I gained 56 lbs in pregnancy and I was as healthy as could be. My body needed that weight to grow a baby. I was underweight (untintentionally) beforehand though, so I’m a bit more of an extreme case. I’m trying to end up at a healthy 115-120 for my height and build.
My Grandma also spent nearly a week in the hospital after giving birth – she wrote in her diary each day; it seems she was in a maternity ward with several other mothers and they chatted a lot and listened to programs on the radio. Many births then were ‘twilight births’, where they put the woman completely to sleep while the baby was being born.
A neighbor of mine was a nurse’s aide in the 1950s before she got married – she said that new mothers weren’t supposed to get out of bed at all…
Sara, that is so interesting! I think it’s sad they used to be put to sleep – that’s why it was such a big deal in the film “Father’s Little Dividend” when Elizabeth Taylor’s character insisted on having a natural birth the “new” way. I still think the American birthing units in hospitals don’t give ladies the kind of constant support they need, but we have come a long way in the last 70 years!
Do you have a personal FB profile? I’d love to follow you, if your personal site is as elegant as your blog!
Thank you, Helena! I don’t make my personal Facebook accessible to the internet, but you can follow me on my business Facebook page or on my Instagram! The links to both are in the sidebar of this blog. 🙂
Thank you and have a lovely day!
Always love these glimpses of the recent past.
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I love your blog! Thank you for giving me something so fun to read! I love that you do your research and give a balanced view.
I have a 1950s magazine with an article about new mother Debbie Reynolds showing her postpartum exercises! I’d love to share it with you if you want.
Trixie, thank you for the offer! I actually have the exact article you’re referring to which is hilarious.
I’m so glad you enjoy reading this, and there will be many more articles in the future as well. Thank you for reading!
Wishing you the best,
Katrina Holte