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Oral History and Women’s Accounts of Infertility in Postwar England

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The Palgrave Handbook of Infertility in History

Abstract

This chapter considers women’s accounts of infertility told during oral history interviews about their lives as mothers in postwar England. In telling their stories of how they became mothers, many women also spoke of the fertility problems they encountered in achieving their desired family size, or their inability to do so. However, the theme of infertility was often ‘hidden’ within women’s narratives. As these women were the biological mothers to at least one child they rarely presented themselves as experiencing infertility and downplayed the difficulties they had in conceiving their children, whether their first child or subsequent children. The chapter also reveals the fatalistic approach that women took to fertility problems and their ambivalence about seeking medical help. Powerlessness and helplessness characterized the narratives of both women who could be said to have achieved their desired family size and those who did not.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Bev, CR10, p. 8. See endnote 7 for a full explanation of codes used to identify interviewees.

  2. 2.

    World Health Organization, ‘Infertility Definitions and Terminology’, 2016: http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/infertility/definitions/en/. Accessed 6 December 2016.

  3. 3.

    C. Gnoth, E. Godehardt, P. Frank-Herrmann, K. Friol, J. Tigges and G. Freundl, ‘Definition and Prevalence of Subfertility and Infertility’, Human Reproduction, 20:5 (2005), p. 1144.

  4. 4.

    J.D.F. Habbema, J. Collins, H. Leridon, J.L.H. Evers, B. Lunenfeld and E.R. teVelde, ‘Towards Less Confusing Terminology in Reproductive Medicine: A Proposal’, Human Reproduction, 19:7 (2004).

  5. 5.

    This research originates from two principal projects: first, my doctoral thesis, which was entitled ‘Motherhood in Oxfordshire, c. 1945–1970: A Study of Attitudes, Experiences and Ideals’; and second, a follow-up study conducted as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow entitled ‘Motherhood, c. 1970–1990: An Oral History’. They were published as Angela Davis, Modern Motherhood: Women and Family in England, c. 1945–2000 (Manchester, 2012).

  6. 6.

    The Agricultural Economics Research Institute Oxford, Country Planning: A Study of Rural Problems (London, 1944).

  7. 7.

    To preserve the anonymity of the interviewees, pseudonyms have been used. Interviewees are referenced by identifying codes. The codes are formed of the first two letters of the locality from which the interviewee came and an identifying number: BA = 24 square miles of north Oxfordshire near Banbury covered by the 1944 Country Planning survey; BE = Benson; CO = Cowley and Florence Park; CR = Crowthorne; EW = Ewelme; OX = Oxford city centre; SA = Sandhurst; NO = North Oxford and Summertown; TH = Thame; WY = Wychwood villages. In addition, a group of graduates from Somerville College, University of Oxford were interviewed and are referenced by the code SO. Recordings and transcripts are held by the author.

  8. 8.

    Interviewees were asked to give their class of origin.

  9. 9.

    Penny Summerfield, Reconstructing Women’s Wartime Lives (Manchester, 1998), pp. 1–42.

  10. 10.

    Elizabeth Roberts’ Working Class Oral History Archive is held at Lancaster University. The Mass Observation collection is held at the University of Sussex.

  11. 11.

    Alessandro Portelli, ‘What Makes Oral History Different’, in R. Perks and A. Thomson (eds), The Oral History Reader (London, 2006).

  12. 12.

    Katie Wright and Julie McLeod, ‘Public Memories and Private Meanings: Representing the “Happy Childhood” Narrative in Oral Histories of Adolescence and Schooling in Australia, 1930s–1950s’, Oral History Forum d’histoire orale, 32 (2012), pp. 16–17.

  13. 13.

    Sally Alexander, ‘The Mysteries and Secrets of Women’s Bodies: Sexual Knowledge in the First Half of the Twentieth Century’, in Mica Nava and Alan O’Shea (eds), Modern Times: Reflections on a Century of English Modernity (London, 1996), p. 171.

  14. 14.

    Simon Szreter and Kate Fisher, Sex before the Sexual Revolution: Intimate Lives in England 1918–1963 (Cambridge, 2010), p. 3.

  15. 15.

    Szreter and Fisher, Sex before the Sexual Revolution, p. 3.

  16. 16.

    Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex (hereafter MOA), DR 3133, DR 3305, DR 1346, DR 3306, DR 163 5, DR 338 7, DR 2873, DR 3399, DR 1289, DR 3471, DR 2892, DR 2254, replies to November 1943 Directive.

  17. 17.

    Eliot Slater and Moya Woodside, Patterns of Marriage (London, 1951), p. 118; Josephine Klein, Samples from English Cultures (London, 1965), p. 154; Ferdynand Zweig, Women’s Life and Labour (London, 1952), pp. 27–8; Geoffrey Gorer, Exploring English Character (London: Cresset Press, 1955), p. 138 and p. 161.

  18. 18.

    Camilla, SO6, p. 14.

  19. 19.

    Lynne, OX14, p. 5.

  20. 20.

    Richard A. Easterlin and Eileen M. Crimmins, The Fertility Revolution: A Supply-Demand Analysis (Chicago and London, 1985), p. 3; Wally Seccombe, ‘Starting to Stop: Working-Class Fertility Decline in Britain’, Past and Present, 126 (1990), pp. 153, 156; Etienne van de Walle, ‘Fertility Transition, Conscious Choice and Numeracy’, Demography, 29 (1992), p. 489; Lucinda McCray Beier, ‘“We Were Green as Grass”: Learning about Sex and Reproduction in Three Working-Class Lancashire Communities, 1900–1970’, Social History of Medicine, 16 (2003), p. 475.

  21. 21.

    Hera Cook, The Long Sexual Revolution (Oxford, 2004), pp. 268, 272.

  22. 22.

    Kate Fisher, Birth Control, Sex, and Marriage in Britain 1918–1960 (Oxford, 2006), p. 2.

  23. 23.

    Elizabeth Roberts’ Working Class Oral History Archive, Lancaster University (hereafter ERA), Mrs J. 1. B., p. 11; also Mrs A. 4. L., p. 43; Mrs T. 2. L., p. 86; Mrs W. 4. L., p. 25; Mr and Mrs K. 2. P., p. 115.

  24. 24.

    MOA, DR 3371, DR 3535, DR 2884, DR 3410, replies to March 1944 Directive.

  25. 25.

    Davis, Modern Motherhood, pp. 182–3.

  26. 26.

    Fisher, Birth Control, Sex, and Marriage in Britain, pp. 127–30.

  27. 27.

    Fisher, Birth Control, Sex and Marriage in Britain, p. 87.

  28. 28.

    Fisher, Birth Control, Sex, and Marriage in Britain, p. 4.

  29. 29.

    Naomi Pfeffer, The Stork and the Syringe: A Political History of Reproductive Medicine (Cambridge, 1993), p. 111.

  30. 30.

    MOA, FR 2182 ‘The Reluctant Stork/Empty Quivers’, November 1944.

  31. 31.

    MOA, FR 2182 ‘The Reluctant Stork/Empty Quivers’, November 1944.

  32. 32.

    MOA, FR 2182 ‘The Reluctant Stork/Empty Quivers’, November 1944.

  33. 33.

    MOA, FR 2182 ‘The Reluctant Stork/Empty Quivers’, November 1944.

  34. 34.

    ERA, Mrs O. 1. B., p. 25.

  35. 35.

    ERA, Mrs W. 5. L., pp. 60–1.

  36. 36.

    Ruby, BE5, p. 6.

  37. 37.

    Ruby, BE5, pp. 8–9

  38. 38.

    Ruby, BE5, pp. 8–9

  39. 39.

    Cynthia, WY12, p. 6.

  40. 40.

    Cynthia, WY12, p. 6.

  41. 41.

    Alexa, SO13, p. 4.

  42. 42.

    Fanny, who was born in 1929, was 37 when her first child was born. Although she did not have any trouble conceiving her first baby, or a second born the following year, she recalled that her doctor said she was lucky not to have had any problems. Fanny, OX4, p. 7.

  43. 43.

    Pfeffer, The Stork and the Syringe, p. 139.

  44. 44.

    Pfeffer, The Stork and the Syringe, p. 127.

  45. 45.

    Pfeffer, The Stork and the Syringe, p. 140.

  46. 46.

    Pfeffer, The Stork and the Syringe, pp. 134–5.

  47. 47.

    Pfeffer, The Stork and the Syringe, pp. 134–5.

  48. 48.

    ERA, Mrs P. 6. B., p. 62.

  49. 49.

    Eve, CO8, p. 2.

  50. 50.

    Shirley SA10, p. 3.

  51. 51.

    Shirley SA10, p. 8.

  52. 52.

    A rhesus negative woman pregnant with a rhesus positive baby is at risk of developing antibodies against the rhesus antigens if any of the baby’s blood enters her bloodstream. In subsequent pregnancies, the antibodies can attack the baby’s red blood cells, potentially leading to anaemia and jaundice in the baby.

  53. 53.

    Edna, OX13, p. 4.

  54. 54.

    Vanessa, BA13, pp. 7–8.

  55. 55.

    ERA, Mrs H. 3. P., p. 89.

  56. 56.

    ERA, Mrs H. 3. P., p. 89.

  57. 57.

    Lorraine, SA6, p. 4.

  58. 58.

    Lorraine, SA6, p. 4.

  59. 59.

    Bev, CR10, p. 8.

  60. 60.

    Bev, CR10, p. 8.

  61. 61.

    Louise Brown, the world’s first baby born by IVF, was born on 25 July 1978 at the Oldham General Hospital in Manchester. Her mother Lesley had failed to conceive over a nine-year period due to her bilateral fallopian tube obstruction, and had been referred to Patrick Steptoe (1913–88), who had developed the technique of laparoscopy, in 1976. A single oocyte was aspirated from one of Lesley’s ovaries during laparoscopy, fertilization in vitro was performed, and a few days later the developing embryo was transferred into Lesley’s uterus. Eric Jauniaux and Botros Rizk, ‘Introduction’, in Eric Jauniaux and Botros Rizk (eds), Pregnancy After Assisted Reproductive Technology (Cambridge, 2012), pp. 6–7.

  62. 62.

    Bev CR10, p. 8.

  63. 63.

    Bev CR10, pp. 9–10.

  64. 64.

    Sandra, EW13, pp. 4–5

  65. 65.

    Sandra, EW13, pp. 4–5

  66. 66.

    Sandra, EW13, pp. 4–5

  67. 67.

    Penny, CO7, p. 10.

  68. 68.

    Penny, CO7, p. 9.

  69. 69.

    Penny, CO7, p. 10.

  70. 70.

    Penny, CO7, p. 10.

  71. 71.

    Bobbie, WY7, p. 7.

  72. 72.

    Bobbie, WY7, p. 7.

  73. 73.

    Bobbie, WY7, p. 7.

  74. 74.

    Bobbie, WY7, pp. 7–8.

  75. 75.

    Elizabeth Roberts, Women and Families: An Oral History, 1940–1970 (Oxford, 1995), pp. 81–2.

Research Resources

Primary Sources

    Archival Sources

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    • Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex.

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    Published Primary Sources

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. University of Warwick, Coventry, England

      Angela Davis

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    1. Angela Davis
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    Correspondence to Angela Davis .

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    1. School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

      Gayle Davis

    2. Department of History, University of Essex, Colchester, Essex, UK

      Tracey Loughran

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    Davis, A. (2017). Oral History and Women’s Accounts of Infertility in Postwar England. In: Davis, G., Loughran, T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Infertility in History. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52080-7_7

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52080-7_7

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