Labour of love
TEEMING’, ‘breeding’, ‘bearing’, ‘big-bellied’, ‘great with child’, ‘in an interesting situation’, ‘rising of the apron’. These are only some of the historic descriptions for pregnant women. One might add ‘bun in the oven’, ‘up the duff’, and, a favourite of my friend with three children under six, ‘in the pudding club’.
A new exhibition at The Foundling Museum introduces us to 500 years of expectant mothers and their bumps. From the Angel Gabriel greeting Mary to Beyoncé announcing her imminentsitting. Her left arm is draped over the back of a red velvet chair. She wears a feather topper, jet earrings, a constricting ruff, a corset and a cape. She calls to mind the woman today who wears her stilettos until the very moment she enters the delivery ward.
