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Can a doctor tell if it's not a first pregnancy?

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  • Can a doctor tell if it's not a first pregnancy?

    Would a doctor (or midwife) attending a woman in her "first" pregnancy be able to tell that she had already had a child?

    I knew a relative had an illegitimate baby in 1905, married in 1908 and had her first child with her husband in 1909. Now I find her brother in law was the local doctor, if he'd been the doctor she saw could he have known?

  • #2
    Sorry to sound crude... but her husband would have known that she wasn't a virgin... :o

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    • #3
      As well as Velma's observation, yes, a Doctor could tell if it was not a first pregnancy. However, he of course is bound by the laws of secrecy, no matter what his relationship to his patient. He possibly would not have been her doctor anyway, and in the early 1900s, not all that many women saw a Doctor during their pregnancy - why would they?

      oC

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      • #4
        I realise her husband should have noticed the lack of virginity! He was a widower so presumably not naive in these matters. Being from a quite well to do family and with his brother being the local doctor I'm just thinking out loud about how she would have kept her little secret - I'm in touch with the son of her secret child. I had contact with one of her grandsons from her marriage but that ceased on discovering about the secret child.

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        • #5
          Jill

          I think the brother would have had to examine her to be able to tell she had already given birth, lol and she presumably wouldn't have wanted that and used another Doctor, if indeed she did use a Doctor at all.

          Also - maybe the widower did know about the child?

          OC

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          • #6
            She certainly covered her tracks well, and of course I suppose it's too long ago to know about what her husband knew. He was a lot older (and they married in a strict baptist chapel in Wales) my aunts & uncle & self have met and welcomed the "new" member of our family even if his closer relatives don't want to know.

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            • #7
              How would a doctor know? What are the signs you've been pregnant before?
              ~ with love from Little Nell~
              Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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              • #8
                Stretch marks?
                ~Val~

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                • #9
                  I never had any. Also, quite a few women managed to hoodwink their husbands about virginity, especially in the days when information about sexual matters wasn't freely available and people relied on hearsay.
                  ~ with love from Little Nell~
                  Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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                  • #10
                    My memory is not too good but I think that you are correct about the stretch marks.
                    In a 1st pregnancy they are - say red - and in further pregnancies silverish - or the other way round.
                    it was something I seem to remember from the obstetric part of my nursing but it was about a century ago (I i exagerate but I did my training in the late 70's) so not too sure.
                    Any midwives about to verify??
                    herky
                    Researching - Trimmer (Farringdon), Noble & Taylor (Ross and Cromarty), Norris (Glasgow), McGilvray (Glasgow and Australia), Leck & Efford (Glasgow), Ferrett (Hampshire), Jenkins & Williams (Aberystwyth), Morton (Motherwell and Tipton), Barrowman (Glasgow), Lilley (Bromsgrove and Glasgow), Cresswell (England and Lanarkshire). Simpson, Morrow and Norris in Ireland. Thomas Price b c 1844 Scotland.

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                    • #11
                      Some women who have given birth have a thin brownish line from the navel downwards. Also, the nipples are different colour. An internal examination will also give away the fact that a woman has previously been pregnant.

                      However, most GPs/midwives are not looking for evidence that their patient is telling lies, lol, so might not observe the various signs anyway, unless it was medically important to know.

                      OC

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                      • #12
                        I don't think that she would have gone to a doctor unless there were complications. I believe pregnacy/childbirth was a midwife dominated speciality and men were kept strictly out of it especially as you had to pay.

                        I didn't get stretch marks that I can see - especially with the first one.



                        Researching Irish families: FARMER, McBRIDE McQUADE, McQUAID, KIRK, SANDS/SANAHAN (Cork), BARR,

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                        • #13
                          I didn't have stretch marks, though with both pregnancies I did have a brown line running from my naval downwards, which disappeared.

                          But I don't think women would necessarily have seen a GP because they were pregnant. For one thing, you had to pay and for another there weren't the raft of tests which can be done nowadays, most births would be at home so you didn't need to book into a maternity unit.
                          ~ with love from Little Nell~
                          Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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                          • #14
                            Well, that's my feeling too - she wouldn't have seen a Doctor JUST because she was pregnant (it wasn't considered an illness then, lol) but if she did, modesty and propriety alone would have sent her to someone other than her brother in law, and this wouldn't have been seen as suspicious by anyone. Even today, GPs are reluctant to treat family members and relatives.

                            OC

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                            • #15
                              Thnkyou for your input everybody, my train of thought was sparked off by the free access on FMP during the footie yesterday when I found the family on the 1911 census. I think you are right OC & Nell about her sidestepping the doctor brother in law, (thinking about it, it would be quite easy to plead modesty).

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