They Wore Corsets When They Were Pregnant!? | Maternity & Nursing Corsets in the 19th Century

In which Kara and Ally are joined by longtime reenactor and historical dressmaker Betsy to discuss the historical practices surrounding corsetry and pregnancy, as well as our own experiences wearing corsets while pregnant and breast-feeding. Apologies for the echo in some places. There were issues with microphone feedback and I don’t know what I am doing!!!! Because the audio got so bad, I unfortunately couldn’t include our conversation on wet nursing, because it was nigh unintelligible. However, I do want to make sure to point out something Betsy shared, that she had learned from Cheyney McKnight while presenting with her at the Civilian’s Symposium in 2019. There was an erroneous belief floating around in the mid-19th century that women’s supply of breast milk was finite. This lead to some pretty horrific practices around enslaved women who were compelled to serve as wet nurses for their enslavers, including separating them from their own babies to ensure a robust supply for the enslaver’s baby. Pregna