Woman. Her Sex and Love Life. William Josephus Robinson

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СКАЧАТЬ the moment the ovum has been fertilized or fecundated by the spermatozoön, the woman is said to be pregnant (or in French enceinte. This term was used very frequently and is still used by prudes, who seem to consider the word pregnant vulgar and disgraceful). Pregnancy, or the period of gestation, lasts from the moment of conception to the moment that the fetus or child is expelled from the uterus. The period of pregnancy differs very widely in different animals,6 but in the human female it lasts nine calendar months or ten lunar months—from about 274 to 280 days. We usually count 280 days from the first day of the last menstruation. A pregnant woman generally wants to know the day of the expected confinement—for this purpose a table is appended to this chapter. If you know the first day of your last menstruation, you will see at a glance when the confinement may be expected. There may be a difference of a few days—either before or after the expected date—but for practical approximate purposes the tables serve very well.

      A simple way is to count back three months and add seven days. For instance, a woman's last menstruation occurred on April 4th; counting back three months gives you January 4th; add seven days and you get January 11th, the probable date of delivery. The first day of the last menstruation was December 30th; counting back three months gives you September 30th; add seven days and you get October 6th, the probable date of delivery. The presence of a short month like February may be disregarded, as the calculation is not absolutely, but only approximately correct.

      The period at which the child's movements begin to be felt by the mother is termed Quickening. It usually occurs at the middle of the pregnancy, between the 16th and 18th week.

      Pregnancy is a normal physiological process; but every active physiological process is apt to be accompanied by disturbances, and there is certainly no process in the animal body in which greater activity, greater changes, go on than during the process of pregnancy. Just see what occurs in nine months. The uterus, at first the size of a small pear, reaches a size larger than that of the head of a big man; it does not merely stretch, as some think, but it actually grows enormously in size, the muscular walls of a pregnant uterus being many times thicker than those of a non-pregnant one. They have to be or they would not have the strength to expel the child, when the proper time comes. It is to be borne in mind that the child does not slip out by itself; it is the powerful muscular contractions of the uterus that push it out. If the uterus should refuse to work, if its walls were too thin or too weak, the child could not come out, but would have to be taken out with forceps. Still greater changes than in the uterus take place in the child itself. At the moment of conception it is the size of the head of a pin; at the moment of birth it weighs from seven to ten pounds; at the moment of conception it is a minute, undifferentiated mass of protoplasm, just a single fertilized cell; at the moment of birth it consists of millions and millions of cells, which have become differentiated into numerous harmoniously working organs, and different tissues, such as brain and nerve tissue, muscular tissue, connective tissue, bone, cartilage, etc., etc. A truly wonderful process. And in the meantime this child, which is biologically a parasite (though it is not a nice name to call it by) draws its sustenance from the mother's blood, and the mother has to provide nourishment for two. And, besides providing nourishment, her excreting organs, her kidneys, must work for two, because her system has also to get rid of the child's excretions. No wonder that the pregnant woman, particularly under an artificial unhealthy mode of living, is subject to many troubles and disturbances.

      DR. ELY'S TABLE FOR CALCULATING THE DATE OF CONFINEMENT

      Explanation.—Find in top line the date of menstruation, the figure below will indicate the date when confinement may be expected, i.e., if date of menstruation is June 1st, confinement may be expected on March 8th, or one day earlier if leap year.

      Chapter Eleven

      THE DISORDERS OF PREGNANCY

      Smooth Course of Pregnancy in Some Women—Pregnancy and Parturition May be Made Normal Processes Through Education in True Hygiene—Morning Sickness and Its Treatment—Necessity for Medical Advice in Pernicious Vomiting—Anorexia—Bulimia—Aversion Towards Certain Foods—Peculiar Cravings—Tendency to Constipation Aggravated by Pregnancy—Dietary Measures in Constipation—Rectal Injections in Constipation—Laxatives—Cause of Frequent Desire to Urinate During First Two or Three and Last Months of Pregnancy—Treatment of Frequent Urination—Cause of Piles During Pregnancy and Their Treatment—Cause of Itching of External Genitals During Pregnancy and Treatment—Cause of Varicose Veins and Treatment—Liver Spots.

      We saw that in some women menstruation runs a perfectly smooth course, free from any disagreeable symptoms. The same is true of pregnancy. It is remarkable how smooth and easy the entire course is with some women. Many women know that they are pregnant only because of the non-appearance of the monthly periods; and even in the later months they feel no discomfort, attending to all their work and pleasures as usual; and even childbirth is a trifling matter with them. Unfortunately the number of such women is not very large, and, because of our confined, unnatural, often exhausting way of living, is becoming smaller and smaller. There is no question that the civilized, refined woman has a harder ordeal in pregnancy and childbirth than has her primitive sister. We confidently hope that this will not be so in the future; we expect the time to come when true hygiene will be an integral part of the education and the life of every girl, and then pregnancy and parturition may become even easier processes than they are in the primitive races. But the time is not yet; and in the meantime our young women have a good deal to go through.

      Morning Sickness. One of the commonest disorders of pregnancy is the so-called morning sickness. This consists in a feeling of nausea and vomiting, which comes on soon after getting up. The morning sickness makes its first appearance in the third, fourth or fifth week of pregnancy and lasts usually until the end of the third or fourth month. In some women, however, the morning sickness comes on in a few days after impregnation has taken place, and those women diagnose their condition unmistakably by the feeling of slight nausea which they experience on getting up. Medicines are as a rule of little use in treating morning sickness. The "disease" can be relieved but not cured. The patient should stay in bed later than usual, should have her breakfast in bed, and then not get up for about half an hour afterward. If the patient is anemic, a good iron preparation may prove useful.

      Pernicious Vomiting. The vomiting of pregnancy sometimes becomes so severe and uncontrollable that it has been given the name pernicious. The patient is unable to retain any kind of food, not even liquids, vomits almost incessantly, and may become very much run down and exhausted. The vomited matter may contain blood. For this condition a competent physician must be consulted, for in some cases the patient's life may be in danger and an abortion has to be performed.

      Capricious Appetite. A capricious appetite is very common in pregnancy. The capriciousness may express itself in four different directions: (1) The patient may lose her appetite, almost altogether, partaking only of very little food, and that with effort. This condition of loss of appetite is called anorexia. (2) The patient may develop an enormous appetite—what we call bulimia—eating several times as much as she does ordinarily. (3) She may develop an aversion towards certain articles of food. Thus many women develop an aversion towards meat, the mere sight of or talk about meat causing in them a sensation of nausea. (4) She may show a craving for the most peculiar articles of food and for articles which are not food at all. The craving for sour pickles or sour cabbage is well-known; but some women will eat chalk, sand, and even more peculiar things (for the chalk there may be a reason: the system needs an extra amount of lime and chalk is carbonate of lime).

       Constipation. Constipation is very common among women in the non-pregnant condition; but in the pregnant it is much more common and much more aggravated. Constipation must be guarded against, but the measures must be of a mild nature. If we can relieve the constipation СКАЧАТЬ