Hi Kathy, First off, let me warn you not to wear stays during your
pregnancy, please...I was told by my doctor, back in the way back machine
(12 years ago) that they could very easily cause miscarrage.
Since breast binding wasn't an unheard of thing, it is possible that they
bound, just enough for support and wore looser clothing. I'm thinking to,
that quite possibly they loosened their stays as they got bigger, until the
point they couldn't wear them. There is also the possibility of a less
heavily boned set of stays, much like the forerunner of the jumps, I haven't
come across such a thing, but it is a possibility.
As it was a very different time, I am sure they must have done things we
would never dream of doing when pregnant, as in tight lacing...our bodies
are differently shaped as well, from not being tight laced from childhood,
so they may have gotten away with things differently then we can today.
Kelly
just my ramblings....
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kathy Page" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Historical Costume List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 11:31 PM
Subject: [h-cost] Gestational Stays
I'm doing a little nosing around on this subject.
Another discussion offlist brought up the issue of
support in the Elizabethan era during pregnancy. Is
there any evidence of what women did while pregnant
but not yet confined, for support? I'm sure the middle
class couldn't afford a lengthy confinement, if at
all. They had to do something while waiting for the
end to come. I know there is a pattern from ohh.. I
think late 18th early 19th c. out there, I'm wondering
where they got the idea from.
Kathy
Ermine, a lion rampant tail nowed gules charged on the shoulder with a
rose Or barbed, seeded, slipped and leaved vert
It's never too late to be who you might have been.
-George Eliot
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there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart
somewhere to receive it.
-Ivan Panin
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