Back to Church

May 8, 1932  Sunday.  We all were in church.  The first time for Mama to attend after being sick.  For dinner we were at P. F. Rempels.

This was the first time that Margaret attended church after Elmer was born on April 7.  In fact, she had not attended since Easter Sunday, March 27.  After childbirth a woman was supposed to rest in bed and eat chicken noodle soup to recover for two weeks.  (Chicken noodle soup was a lot of work to prepare since the chicken had to be butchered and dressed and noodles made and the soup cooked, so it was a real treat.)  Neighbors and relatives would come over and help with the work while she recuperated.  Often a teenage girl was hired to help for some time.

By this time death in childbirth was already rare, but only a generation before 6% of births had resulted in the death of the mother.  When women usually had 6-10 children, the cumulative risk of dying was quite high.  In fact, Cornelius’ mother Aganetha (Klassen) Siemens had died in childbirth when he was five years old.  The widespread use of sterile techniques during delivery was the cause of the improvement. 

Cornelius says that Margaret had been “sick” because he would have considered it indecorous to write about pregnancy.