Some indigenous North Americans used the strap their babies into cradle boards that could be propped up somewhere safe while parents did whatever. That handles pre-walking children.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradleboard

I wish we knew more about how children spent their days in pre-industrial societies. Maybe they played out of site of their parents, only coming home to eat. I had a pretty autonomous childhood.

If we imagine that the work of women was craft work that could be safely and comfortably be done in the presence of children, then we can compare that to the places and conditions of the workplace of todays woman.

If yesterdays woman could bring her kids to work and todays cant, then we are pressuring women to have fewer children, and dumping the blame on them to boot.

What does todays idealized woman look like? Who are the role models we assign to our daughters?