Mildred’s pregnancy

Mildred’s pregnancy, following her abandonment by Emil Miller, brings Philip Carey into a sustained role of practical and emotional support but does not create the maternal attachment he hopes for. Its course—from anxious preparation and birth to Mildred’s departure for Brighton with her daughter—shows how precarious work and limited means shape her choices, while Philip’s desire to preserve the family he imagines repeatedly meets her determination to remain independent of the child’s care.

Circumstances and Preparation

Mildred’s pregnancy is presented through ordinary routines interrupted by moments of fear. She takes care over her health, goes out for a walk when the weather permits, and spends much of the day at home reading novels or talking with her landlady. Though she sometimes panics about the pain of childbirth and the possibility of dying, she generally expects the delivery to go well, partly because her doctor has reassured her. She sees him weekly on the recommendation of Mrs. Owen, who will take her into her house when the time comes; his fee is fifteen guineas.

The preparations reveal both dependence on advice and a limited ability to manage domestic work. Mildred cannot sew well, so she decides that buying the baby’s necessities will be cheaper than making them. Philip has five hundred pounds in the bank after selling one of his mortgages and is confident he can help. He wants Mildred to keep her daughter, but Mildred says that having a child to look after would make earning a living harder. She plans to return to one of the shops where she previously worked and place the baby with a woman in the country for seven shillings and sixpence a week.

Philip’s Hopes and Mildred’s Plans

Philip’s support rests on a hope that care for the baby will draw Mildred toward motherhood. He is distressed by her plan to place the child elsewhere, but she interprets his objections as concern about the cost and assures him she will not ask him to pay. Her position is not simply a refusal to provide for the baby: she expects to work, arranges medical care, and makes plans for childcare. Yet Philip sees that, beneath her practical explanations, she hopes the child will be stillborn. He is shocked, then acknowledges to himself that such an outcome might seem preferable to those involved.

As the birth approaches, Philip experiences their domestic intimacy as a rare happiness. Mildred becomes gentler with him and less concerned with maintaining appearances; he helps her prepare for bed and makes a nightly ritual of saying goodbye. He longs to sacrifice himself for her, treating his care as a possible bond between them. That tenderness does not mean they share a view of the future: his hopes gather around keeping the child close, while her plans are organized around returning to work and avoiding the burden of full-time care.

Birth and Immediate Aftermath

When Mildred moves to the nursing home, Philip can visit only in the afternoons. She tells the establishment’s mistress that she is the wife of a soldier serving in India and introduces Philip as her brother-in-law. The invented account preserves appearances during her confinement, though Philip recognizes its implausibility and jokes about it.

Mildred gives birth safely to a daughter. When Philip is permitted to see them, the baby is beside her; Mildred is weak but relieved that the delivery is over. She looks at the child with curiosity and says she cannot believe it is hers. Philip is uncertain how to respond, and the nurse’s apparent suspicion that he is the father makes his position in the room uncomfortable. The birth fulfills the immediate medical expectation, but it does not produce the transformation Philip had hoped would make Mildred want to keep the baby.

Brighton and the Limits of Maternal Attachment

Three weeks later, after a quick recovery, Mildred looks better and leaves with the baby for Brighton. She is going to a boarding house where she had previously spent weekends with Emil Miller, and claims that her husband has gone to Germany on business. She enjoys devising such stories and invents details to support them. In Brighton she intends to find a woman to take the baby in, reasoning that it is better to place the child before it grows accustomed to her.

Philip had counted on the maternal instinct emerging after the birth to persuade Mildred to keep her daughter. It does not. Mildred performs the necessary care and is sometimes amused by the baby, and she talks about her, but remains emotionally indifferent and does not experience the child as part of herself. She imagines that the baby already resembles its father, worries about how she will manage as the child grows, and regrets having become pregnant. Her departure with the baby therefore does not resolve their disagreement: the daughter remains with Mildred for the journey, but Mildred still intends to arrange care elsewhere.

Significance

The pregnancy makes the difference between Philip’s emotional investment and Mildred’s practical calculations especially clear. He has money available and offers security, but his resources cannot make her share his conception of family or motherhood. Her choices are shaped by the difficulty of earning a living alone and by the prospect that childcare will restrict that work. The episode thus treats pregnancy not as a simple passage into maternal affection, but as a condition whose consequences are negotiated through money, employment, medical arrangements, and competing expectations. The daughter’s birth changes the circumstances of Philip and Mildred’s relationship without bringing their aims into alignment.