Fainting room
Encyclopedia
A fainting room was a room, used during the Victorian era
, where women could go to rest when feeling faint. Fainting rooms often included fainting couch
es where women would faint or recline without fearing bodily harm. Such couches or sofas typically had an arm on one side only to permit easy access to a reclining position, although the sofa style most typically featured a back at one end so that the resulting position was not purely supine
. The main reason that so many women would feel so faint and would require special arrangements was the widespread wearing of corsets by women during this time. The tight corset would restrict the abdominal midsection impeding blood return to the heart from the legs. Additionally, it restricted the lower chest from expanding forcing the wearer to take shallow poorly effective breaths. The combination of poor blood return and difficult breathing would often result in the corset wearers feeling weak and near fainting and required them to assume a fully or a semi reclining position to be able to recover.
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
, where women could go to rest when feeling faint. Fainting rooms often included fainting couch
Fainting couch
A fainting couch is a couch with a back that is traditionally raised at one end. The back may be situated completely at one side of the couch, or may wrap around and extend the entire length of the piece much like a traditional couch...
es where women would faint or recline without fearing bodily harm. Such couches or sofas typically had an arm on one side only to permit easy access to a reclining position, although the sofa style most typically featured a back at one end so that the resulting position was not purely supine
Supine position
The supine position is a position of the body: lying down with the face up, as opposed to the prone position, which is face down, sometimes with the hands behind the head or neck. When used in surgical procedures, it allows access to the peritoneal, thoracic and pericardial regions; as well as the...
. The main reason that so many women would feel so faint and would require special arrangements was the widespread wearing of corsets by women during this time. The tight corset would restrict the abdominal midsection impeding blood return to the heart from the legs. Additionally, it restricted the lower chest from expanding forcing the wearer to take shallow poorly effective breaths. The combination of poor blood return and difficult breathing would often result in the corset wearers feeling weak and near fainting and required them to assume a fully or a semi reclining position to be able to recover.