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Home » The Domestic Sphere » Childhood and childcare » Nursing

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Portrait of Mrs Gwyn (Alc Rolls and his Nurse), by George O. Delamotte
  • This glass feeding bottle had a glass inner tube. The design was extremely difficult to clean and was a perfect breeding ground for bacteria.
Glass feeding bottle, late 19th century
  • This boat-shaped feeding bottle has a hole at either end - this made it easy both to clean and to regulate the flow of the milk. These were the first feeding bottles to incorporate a teat and a valve and were used from the 1900s to the 1940s.
Glass feeding bottle, early 20th century
  • Evelyn Hobbs is shown here nursing her baby 'Welsh fashion', whereby a shawl supporting the baby is wrapped over one shoulder and around the waist at the back. Her hands are free to do other things, and the baby's weight is taken on the shoulders and back rather than the arms. The baby is held close to the mother's body, where it is comforted by her body heat and the sound of her heartbeat. In years gone by, many Welsh mothers kept their babies close and contented in this manner, which allowed them to get on with their housework or other tasks. Many women still nurse their babies in this way, especially among those who belong to older generations.
Evelyn Hobbs of Tonmawr, Neath, nursing a baby 'Welsh fashion', c.1920s
  • There are numerous references in this journal to female inmates who had brought their 'suckling' babies or young children with them to the prison. Indeed, the gaol registers for the years 1820-63 record some 208 children as having entered Haverfordwest Gaol with their mothers (and this may be a conservative figure, since it depended on the whim of the clerk who compiled the entries in the register). The mothers of 'suckling' babies were frequently prescribed extra food by the prison surgeon. On this particular page, for instance, Ann Morris and Ann Swann, both of whom had been imprisoned for the 'crime' of bearing a 'bastard' child, were awarded extra bread and milk.
Journal kept by the Surgeon of the County Gaol, Haverfordwest, 29 June - 1 October 1822 [image 14 of 147]
  • Female inmates who had recently given birth and were still suckling their babies were often exempt from hard physical labour. Here the surgeon orders that 'No Woman that is suckling to be work'd on the Wheel' (i.e. prison treadmill). The County Gaol at Haverfordwest was one of the first provincial prisons within Wales to install a treadmill. A corn-grinding 'mill' was installed at the prison some date before August 1823. The mill was designed and built by Sir William Cubitt, who had installed similar mills in twelve other British prisons. The treadmill provided work for up to 64 prisoners, men and women. Source: Michael Freeman, 'Haverfordwest Castle, 1577-1964' in Dilllwyn Miles (ed.), 'A History of the Town and County of Haverfordwest' (Llandysul, 1999).
Journal kept by the Surgeon of the County Gaol, Haverfordwest, 8 June 1823 - 23 November 1823 [image 25 of 147]