Picture Sundays: Beer and Motherhood

“A case of Blatz Beer in your home means much to the young mother, and obviously baby participates in its benefits. The malt in the beer supplies nourishing qualities that are essential at this time and the hops act as an appetizing, stimulating tonic.” -Blatz Beer ad, 1916.

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9 Comments

  1. Beer is said to help your milk come in when you are a nursing mother. I’ve heard Guinness is the best. Three cheers for beer!

  2. Lol, but look at it from another point of view one of the 1900s. You are young mother, baby is fussy and you are at your wits ends. A sippy cup of Blatz ensures a calm nap time. Maybe preventing mother’s heavy hand on a bare bottom or worse?
    Beer or rather brewer’s yeast is known to increase a mother’s milk supply.
    Have you seen the early ads for Lysol (feminine hygiene)?

    30+ years ago I caught my MIL rubbing paragoric on our daughter’s gums to help with her teething. Mystery solved as to why she always slept so well at Grandma’s house.

  3. My Mother was instructed to drink a quart of milk and a quart of beer daily when she was breastfeeding me in 1966.

    I took brewer’s yeast supplements when I was breastfeeding my own children between 1998-2006. Something about the B vitamins, if I recall.

  4. My friend, Susanne, in Germany assures me that there are low alcohol beers available there for consumption by children.

    When I was expecting my youngest in 1984, I started having real labor contractions in my 7th month and had begun to dilate. My midwife recommended that I sip beer when the contractions started, although now I don’t remember the reasoning. I had not been a drinker before that and I’m still not, but I did go right to my due date and Benjamin was 9 lb 12 oz. Not sure I want to credit the beer entirely . . . but that was the only one of my children who did not arrive early.

  5. Alcohol is known to delay onset of labour, but I can’t remember why. Could be to do with it being a muscle relaxant. I’d expect it to take more than beer, though.
    (I had my first on New Year’s day, with labour starting on New Year’s Eve night … )

  6. My great aunt was prescribed a half pint of guiness at lunch when she was 16. Her doctor was worried she was too thin.

  7. Funny the comment above just appeared to reawaken this thread, because just yesterday I was reading Dickens’ Dombey and Sons, and there was a scene in which wet nurse is contracted. Part of her keep is a daily allowance of porter. Beer and breast feeding go way back.

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