Woman Her Sex and Love Life Part 6

At the end of the fourth month the fetus is between six and seven inches long and weighs about five ounces.

At the end of the fifth month the fetus is between seven and eleven inches long, and weighs eight to ten ounces.

At the end of the sixth month it is eleven to thirteen inches long and weighs one and one-half to two pounds. If born, is capable of living a few minutes, and it is reported that some six months' children have been incubated.

At the end of the seventh month the fetus is from thirteen to fifteen or sixteen inches long and weighs about three pounds. Is capable of independent life, but must be brought up with great care, usually in an incubator.

At the end of the eighth month the length is from fifteen to seventeen inches, and weight from three to five pounds.

At the end of the ninth month the length of the fetus is from sixteen to seventeen and one-half inches, and weight from five to seven pounds.

At the end of the tenth lunar month (at birth) the length of the child is from seventeen to nineteen inches and the weight from six to twelve pounds; the average is seven and a quarter, but there are full term children weighing less than six pounds and more than twelve; but these are exceptions.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THE AFTERBIRTH (PLACENTA) AND CORD

How the Afterbirth Develops--Bag of Waters--Umbilical Cord--The Navel--Fetus Nourished by Absorption--Fetus Breathes by Aid of Placenta--No Nervous Connection Between Mother and Child.

Whatever part of the womb the ovum attaches itself to is stimulated to intense activity, to growth. Numerous bloodvessels begin to grow and that part of the lining membrane with its numerous bloodvessels const.i.tute the placenta, or as it is commonly called _afterbirth_, because it comes out _after_ the _birth_ of the child. From the placenta there is also reflected a membrane over the ovum, so as to give it additional protection. That membrane forms a complete bag over the fetus; this bag becomes filled with liquid, so that the fetus floats freely in a bag of waters; this bag bursts only during childbirth. The fetus is not attached close to the placenta, but is, so to say, suspended from it by a _cord_, which is called the _umbilical cord_. When the child is born, the umbilical cord is cut, and the scar or depression in the abdomen where the umbilical cord was attached const.i.tutes the navel or umbilicus (in slang language--b.u.t.ton or belly b.u.t.ton). The umbilical cord consists of two arteries and one vein embedded in a gelatin like substance and enveloped by a membrane, and it is through the umbilical cord that the blood from the placenta is brought to and carried from the fetus. The blood of the fetus and the blood of the mother do not mix; the bloodvessels are separated by thin walls, and it is through these thin walls that the fetal blood receives the ingredients it needs from the mother's blood. In other words, it receives its nourishment from the mother by _absorption_ or _osmosis_. The blood from the placenta also furnishes the fetal blood with oxygen, so that the fetus breathes by the aid of the placenta, and not through its own lungs.

It is well to remember that there is absolutely no nervous connection between mother and child. There are no nerves whatever in the umbilical cord, so that the nervous systems of the fetus and of the mother are entirely distinct and separate. And this will explain why certain nervous impressions and shocks received by the mother are not readily transmitted to the child. It is only through changes in the mother's blood that the fetus can be influenced. As will be seen in a later chapter we are skeptical about "maternal impressions."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

LACTATION OR NURSING

No Perfect Subst.i.tute for Mother's Milk--When Nursing is Injurious to Mother and Child--Modified Milk--Artificial Foods--Care Essential in Selecting Wet Nurse--Suckling Child Benefits Mother--Reciprocal Affection Strengthened by Nursing--s.e.xual Feelings While Nursing--Alcoholics are Injurious--Attention to Condition of Nipples During Pregnancy Essential--Treatment of Sunken Nipples--Treatment of Tender Nipples--Treatment of Cracked Nipples--How to Stop the Secretion of Milk When Necessary-- Menstruation While Nursing--Pregnancy in the Nursing Woman.

Every mother should nurse her child--if she can. There is no perfect subst.i.tute for mother's milk. There is only one excuse for a mother not nursing--that is when she has no milk, or when the quality of the milk is so poor that the child does not thrive on it, or when the mother is run down, is threatened with or is suffering with tuberculosis, etc. In such cases the nursing would prove injurious to both mother and child.

When the mother cannot nurse the child, it should be brought up artificially on modified cow's milk. Formulas for modified milk have been worked out for every month of the child's life, and if the formulas are carefully followed, and the bottle and nipples are properly sterilized, the child should have no trouble, but should thrive and grow like on good mother's milk. If the child is sickly or delicate and does not thrive on modified cow's milk or on the other artificial foods, such as Horlick's malted milk, or Nestle's food, then a wet nurse may become necessary. But before engaging a wet nurse great care should be taken to make sure that she is healthy, that the age of her child is approximately the same as the age of the child which she is about to nurse, and particularly that she is free from any syphilitic taint. One, two or more Wa.s.sermann tests should be made to settle the question definitely.

Mothers should bear in mind that suckling the child is good not only for the child, but for the mother as well. Lactation helps the _involution_ of the uterus: the uterus of a nursing mother returns more quickly and more perfectly to its normal ante-pregnant condition than the uterus of the mother who cannot or will not nurse her child.

It is a.s.serted that the reciprocal affection between mother and child is greater in cases in which the child suckled its mother's breast.

This is quite likely. It is also a.s.serted that the nursing mother transmits certain traits to its child, which the non-nursing mother cannot. This is merely a hypothesis without any scientific proof.

On the other hand, the statement that many women experience decidedly pleasurable s.e.xual feelings while nursing seems to be well substantiated.

That the mother who nurses her child should partake of sufficient nourishment goes without saying. But the advice often given to nursing mothers to partake of beer, ale or wine is a bad one. It is a question if a mother partaking of considerable quant.i.ties of alcoholic beverages may not transmit the taste for alcohol to her children. No, alcoholics should be left alone, but milk, eggs, meat, fruit and vegetables should be partaken of in abundance.

=Preparing the Nipples.= For the infant to be able to nurse properly the nipples of the breast must be in good condition. If the nipples are sunken, depressed, it is torture for the child to nurse. It uses up a lot of energy uselessly, becomes exhausted, and gets very little milk; while if the nipples be tender or cracked the process of nursing is a torture for the mother.

It is therefore necessary to attend to the nipples in due time--to begin at the fifth or sixth month is not too early. If the nipples are sufficiently prominent, little need be done for them except to wash them with a little boric acid solution (one teaspoonful of boric acid to a gla.s.s of water) occasionally, and now and then to rub in a little petrolatum, plain or borated. But if the nipples are sunken so that they are below the surface of the breast, or if they are only slightly above the surface of the breast, they must be treated. Gentle traction must be made on them with the fingers three or four times a day. There are only a few cases where persistent manipulation will not develop the nipple and make it stand out prominently.

If the nipple is tender it should be washed two or three times a day with a mixture of alcohol and water; one part of alcohol to three parts of water is sufficient. In was.h.i.+ng the nipple with this diluted alcohol it should be dried and a little petrolatum or vaseline rubbed in. This done two or three times a day during the last month or two of the pregnancy will generally produce a good healthy nipple.

=The Treatment of Cracked Nipples.= If the care of the nipple has been neglected, and it develops cracks or fissures so that the nursing of the child causes the mother severe pain, the nursing should be done through a nipple s.h.i.+eld, and in the meantime between the nursings the nipple should be rubbed with the following preparation, which is excellent and which I can fully recommend: thymol iodide, dram; olive oil, ounce. This should be applied every hour to the nipple and covered with a little cotton; before each nursing, however, it must be well washed off with warm water or warm boric acid solution.

When the nipples are cracked, the infant's lips should also before nursing be carefully wiped out with boric acid solution. For the baby's mouth contains bacteria which while harmless in themselves may if they get into the cracks of the nipple set up an inflammation of the breast or "mast.i.tis" and cause an abscess. If the cracks are excruciatingly painful, as they sometimes are, it is necessary to give the one breast a rest for twenty-four hours and have the child nurse at the other until the cracks have partially healed.

=When It Is Necessary to Dry Up the b.r.e.a.s.t.s.= In case of the death of the child, or if the mother for some other reason finds herself unable to nurse, such as in cases where there is absolutely no nipple, instead of the prominence of the nipple there being a deep depression, it becomes necessary to stop the secretion of the milk, or as it is said in common parlance, "to dry up the b.r.e.a.s.t.s." In former days, not so very long ago, and the practice is still common enough to call attention to it and to condemn it, the b.r.e.a.s.t.s used to be tightly bandaged, or they used to be pumped every few hours. The first causes unnecessary pain and trouble, while the second procedure, the pumping, does exactly the reverse to what it is intended to do. Instead of drying up the b.r.e.a.s.t.s it keeps up the secretion. The best thing to do in a case like that is to leave the b.r.e.a.s.t.s alone, not to pump them, but just gently support them with a bandage and then in three or four days the secretion of the milk will gradually disappear. There is some discomfort the first twenty-four or forty-eight hours, but if left alone the discomfort is less than if the b.r.e.a.s.t.s are manipulated, bandaged or pumped.

=Menstruation or Pregnancy While Nursing.= Many women do not menstruate and do not become pregnant while they are nursing. Some women will not conceive, no matter how long they may nurse the child--a year or two or longer. And some women take advantage of this fact, and in order to avoid another child they will keep up the nursing as long as possible. In Egypt and other Oriental countries where our means for the prevention of conception are unknown, it is no rare sight to see a child three or four years old interrupting his work or his play and running up to suckle his mother's breast. But not all women have this good luck. Some women (about fifty per cent.) begin to menstruate in the sixth month of lactation, while some become pregnant even before they begin to menstruate. It only too often happens that a woman considering lactation her safeguard omits to use any precautions and finds herself, to her great discomfiture, in a pregnant condition.

When a nursing woman discovers that she is pregnant she should give up nursing at once. The milk is apt to become of poor quality, but even where this is not the case, it is too much for a woman to feed one child in the uterus and one at the breast.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

ABORTION AND MISCARRIAGE

Definition of Word Abortion--Definition of Word Miscarriage-- Spontaneous Abortion--Induced Abortion--Therapeutic Abortion-- Criminal Abortion--Missed Abortion--Habitual Abortion--Syphilis as Cause of Abortion and Miscarriage--Dangers of Abortion-- Abortion an Evil.

The word abortion, used somewhat loosely, signifies the premature expulsion of the fetus; the expulsion of the fetus from the womb before it is viable, i.e., before it is capable of living independently. Used in a stricter sense, the word abortion is applied to the expulsion of the fetus up to the end of the 16th week; to the expulsion of the fetus between the 16th and the 28th week the term miscarriage is applied; and when the expulsion of the fetus takes place after the 28th week, but before full term, we use the term premature labor. The laity does not like the term abortion, as it is under the impression that the term always signifies criminal abortion; it therefore prefers to use the term miscarriage ("miss"), regardless of the time at which the expulsion of the fetus takes place.

When an abortion (or miscarriage) takes place by itself, without any outside aid, we call it _spontaneous abortion_. When it is brought on by artificial means, whether by the woman herself or by somebody else, we call it _induced_ abortion. When an abortion is induced for the purpose of saving the woman's life, we call it _therapeutic_ abortion; this is considered perfectly legal and proper. But where an abortion is induced merely to save an unmarried mother's reputation, or because the married mother is too poor or too weak to have any more children, or is reluctant to have any (or any more) for any other reason, it is called _criminal_ or _illegal_ abortion, and, if discovered, subjects the mother and the person who produced the abortion to severe punishment.

When the fetus for some reason dies in its mother's womb, it is generally expelled within a few hours or days. Sometimes this is not the case, and the dead fetus is retained for several weeks, or months or even years; to such a phenomenon we apply the term _missed_ abortion. Some women suffer from what might be called the abortion habit; they can hardly ever carry a child to full term, but lose it in the same month or even in the same week of gestation during each pregnancy; we call this habitual abortion. And this habitual abortion may be independent of disease, such, for instance, as syphilis. The terms _threatened_, _imminent_ and _inevitable_ abortion require no further explanation.

=The Causes of Abortion.= Outside of the abortion habit, which may be due partly to heredity or be caused by a diseased condition of the lining membrane of the uterus, the princ.i.p.al cause of abortion and miscarriage is syphilis. And when a woman has had two or three or four or more miscarriages in succession we generally a.s.sume the cause to be syphilis, and in most cases the a.s.sumption will be correct.

When an abortion is performed by an experienced physician, with the observance of the utmost cleanliness (asepsis and antisepsis), then the abortion is accompanied with very little or no danger; but when performed carelessly, by incompetent, non-conscientious physicians and midwives, the operation is fraught with great danger to the patient's health or to her very life. And abortion is a great cause of premature death and chronic invalidism among women. And as long as the people will remain ignorant of the proper means of regulating their offspring, so long will abortion thrive.

While I recognize that there are cases in which the performance of an abortion is perfectly justifiable from a moral standpoint, for instance in cases of rape or where the mother is unmarried, nevertheless abortion must be recognized as an evil, a necessary evil now and then, but an evil, nevertheless. It is never to be undertaken lightly, or to be considered in a frivolous spirit; and it is the duty of all serious-minded and humanitarian men and women to do everything in their power to remove those conditions which make abortion necessary and unavoidable.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

PRENATAL CARE

Meaning of the Term--Misleading Information by Quasi-Scientists-- Exaggerated Ideas Regarding Prenatal Care--Nervous Connection Between Mother and Child--Cases Under Author's Observation--Effects on Offspring--Advice to Pregnant Women--Germ-plasm of Chronic Alcoholic--A Gla.s.s of Wine and the Spermatozoa--False Statements-- Cases of Violence and Accidents During Pregnancy.

By prenatal care we understand the care taken during pregnancy before the child is born. Used in a wider sense the term includes the care which both parents should take of themselves even before the child is conceived.