How did ww2 rationing affect pregnant women?
As always, a lot depended on where one lived. While rationing was a common practice, some countries had more resources than others, notably the United States. Yes, we were involved in the war, but we weren’t also having to deal with daily/nightly bombings of our cities or foreign troops invading us. This means, at its simplest, that our rationing was not likely as drastic as it was in Britain, the former Soviet Union, Germany, Japan, or the occupied countries in Europe and Asia. That said, the health of pregnant women and the children they were carrying was a priority in most places. The difference was in how their nutritional needs were met. As I mentioned at the outset, a pregnant woman in the US at this time probably fared better under rationing than her sisters in most places simply because the farms here weren’t turning the majority of their produce over to an occupying power, and also the number of “victory gardens” that were common even in urban areas. The sheer size of the coun
