Hogarth print showing pregnant woman
This persistent falsehood is also trotted out for women in the nineteenth century, the “Victorian” era, but there is little evidence to support the claim in either century.
Poor and middle class women simply could not afford to remain sequestered away indoors for months on end—for crying out loud, they had too much work to do—and wealthy women, who theoretically could have done so, did not want to. Linda Baumgarten, Curator of Textiles at Colonial Williamsburg, points out in her book What Clothes Reveal (2002) that not only did colonial-era women venture outside their homes during pregnancy, they enjoyed active social lives, dining with friends, attending religious services and cultural events, and going about their daily business. Letters and diaries of the period provide ample evidence. 
Posted by Mary Miley 
