Unfortunately, this method caused Charlotte more pain in later years than ever expected.
Charlotte grew, eventually married, and had a child of her own. The birth of her daughter Katharine in 1885 caused Charlotte more torment and devastation than ever thought possible. She described the process as "Brief ecstasy. Long pain. Then years of joy again" (Gilman, 88). Her health descended to an extreme of nervous exhaustion which no one but herself seemed to understand. Her husband moved Charlotte to a new home in which they hired a servant girl to care for the newborn child. The transfer to this home had disturbing and overwhelming effects on Charlotte and she sank into a deep realm of depression. "The baby? I nursed her for five months. I would hold her close - that lovely child! - and instead of love and happiness, feel only pain. The tears ran down on my breast Nothing was more utterly bitter than this, that even motherhood brought no joy" (Gilman, 91-92). Her mental state dropped and she was no longer able to focus. "I was unable to read, and that my mind was exclusively occupied with unpleasant things. This disorder involved a growing melancholia, and that, as those know who have tasted it, consists of every painful mental sensation, shame, fear, remorse, a blind oppressive confusion, utter weakness, a steady brain-ache that fills the conscious mind with crowding images of distress" (Gilman, 90). Yet, still, the doctors found nothing wrong with her.
Charlotte traveled to consult with the greatest nerve specialist in the country, Dr. S. W. Mitchell of Philadelphia. This doctor prescribed the "rest cure," reassuring her that there was no sort of dementia and rather hysteria. She was prescribed to do nothing but spend time with her child. She was unable to write, to read, or to have more than two hours of intellectual life per day. This prescription drove Charlotte almost insane.
