Searchlights on Health: Light on Dark Corners Part 39

[Ill.u.s.tration: _A Contracted Pelvis. Deformity and Insufficient s.p.a.ce._]

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19. THIS IS WHAT DR. STOCKHAM says: "If women had _common sense_, instead of _fas.h.i.+on sense_, the corset would not exist. There are not words in the English language to express my convictions upon this subject. The corset more than any other one thing is responsible for woman's being the victim of disease and doctors....

"What is the effect upon the child? One-half of the children born in this country die before they are five years of age. Who can tell how much this state of things is due to the enervation of maternal life forces by the one instrument of torture?

"I am a temperance woman. No one can realize more than I the devastation and ruin alcohol in its many tempting forms has brought to the human family. Still I solemnly believe that in weakness and deterioration of health, the corset has more to answer for than intoxicating drinks." When asked how far advanced a woman should be in pregnancy before she laid aside her corset, Dr. Stockham said with emphasis: "_The corset should not be worn for two hundred years before pregnancy takes place._ Ladies, it will take that time at least to overcome the ill-effect of tight garments which you think so essential."

20. PAINLESS PREGNANCY AND CHILD-BIRTH.--"Some excellent popular volumes,"

says Dr. Haff, "have been largely devoted to directions how to secure a comfortable period of pregnancy and painless delivery. After much conning of these worthy efforts to impress a little common sense upon the sisterhood, we are convinced that all may be summed up under the simple heads of: (1) An unconfined and lightly burdened waist; (2) Moderate but persistent outdoor exercise, of which walking is the best form; (3) A plain, unstimulating, chiefly fruit and vegetable diet; (4) Little or no intercourse during the time.

"These are hygienic rules of benefit under any ordinary conditions; yet they are violated by almost every pregnant lady. If they are followed, biliousness, indigestion, constipation, swollen limbs, morning sickness and nausea--all will absent themselves or be much lessened. In pregnancy, more than at any other time, corsets are injurious. The waist and abdomen must be allowed to expand freely with the growth of the child. The great process of _evolution_ must have room."

21. IN ADDITION, we can do no better than quote the following recapitulation by Dr. Stockham in her famous {298} Tokology: "To give a woman the greatest immunity from suffering during pregnancy, prepare her for a safe and comparatively easy delivery, and insure a speedy recovery, all hygienic conditions must be observed.

"The dress must give:

"1. Freedom of movement;

"2. No pressure upon any part of the body;

"3. No more weight than is essential for warmth, and both weight and warmth evenly distributed.

"These requirements necessitate looseness, lightness and warmth, which can be obtained from the union underclothes, a princess skirt and dress, with a shoe that allows full development and use of the foot. While decoration and elegance are desirable, they should not sacrifice comfort and convenience.

22. "LET THE DIET BE LIGHT, plain and nutritious. Avoid fats and sweets, relying mainly upon fruits and grain that contain little of the mineral salts. By this diet bilious and inflammatory conditions are overcome, the development of bone in the foetus lessened, and muscles necessary in labor nourished and strengthened.

23. "EXERCISE should be sufficient and of such a character as will bring into action gently every muscle of the body; but must particularly develop the muscles of the trunk, abdomen and groin, that are specially called into action in labor. Exercise, taken faithfully and systematically, more than any other means a.s.sists a.s.similative processes and stimulates the organs of excretion to healthy action.

24. "BATHING MUST BE FREQUENT and regular. Unless in special conditions the best results are obtained from tepid or cold bathing, which invigorates the system and overcomes nervousness. The sitz-bath is the best therapeutic and hygienic measure within the reach of the pregnant woman.

"Therefore, to establish conditions which will overcome many previous infractions of law, _dress_ naturally and physiologically; _live_ much of the time _out of doors_; have _abundance_ of _fresh air_ in the house; let _exercise_ be _sufficient_ and _systematic_; pursue a _diet of fruit_, rice and vegetables; _regular rest_ must be faithfully taken; _abstain_ from the s.e.xual relation. To those who will commit themselves to this course of life, patiently and persistently carrying it out through the period of gestation, the possibilities of attaining a healthy, natural, painless parturition will be remarkably increased. {299}

25. "IF THE FIRST EXPERIMENT should not result in a painless labor, it without doubt will prove the beginning of sound health. Persisted in through years of married life, the ultimate result will be more and more closely approximated, while there will be less danger of diseases after childbirth and better and more vigorous children will be produced.

"Then pregnancy by every true woman will be desired, and instead of being a period of disease, suffering and direful forebodings, will become a period of health, exalted pleasure and holiest antic.i.p.ations. Motherhood will be deemed the choicest of earth's blessings; women will rejoice in a glad maternity and for any self-denial will be compensated by healthy, happy, buoyant, grateful children."

[Ill.u.s.tration]

{300} [Ill.u.s.tration: A HAPPY MOTHER.]

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Solemn Lessons for Parents.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JOAN OF ARC.]

1. EXCESSIVE PLEASURES AND PAINS.--A woman during her time of pregnancy should of all women be most carefully tended, and kept from violent and excessive pleasures and pains; and at that time she should cultivate gentleness, benevolence and kindness. {302}

2. HEREDITARY EFFECTS.--Those who are born to become insane do not necessarily spring from insane parents, or from any ancestry having any apparent taint of lunacy in their blood, but they do receive from their progenitors certain impressions upon their mental and moral, as well as their physical beings, which impressions, like an iron mould, fix and shape their subsequent destinies. Hysteria in the mother may develop insanity in the child, while drunkenness in the father may impel epilepsy, or mania, in the son. Ungoverned pa.s.sions in the parents may unloose the furies of unrestrained madness in the minds of their children, and the bad treatment of the wife may produce sickly or weak-minded children.

3. THE INFLUENCE OF PREDOMINANT Pa.s.sION may be transmitted from the parent to the child, just as surely as similarity of looks. It has been truly said that "the faculties which predominate in power and activity in the parents, when the organic existence of the child commences, determine its future mental disposition." A bad mental condition of the mother may produce serious defects upon her unborn child.

4. THE SINGULAR EFFECTS produced on the unborn child by the sudden mental emotions of the mother are remarkable examples of a kind of electrotyping on the sensitive surfaces of living forms. It is doubtless true that the mind's action in such cases may increase or diminish the molecular deposits in the several portions of the system. The precise place which each separate particle a.s.sumes in the new organic structure may be determined by the influence of thought or feeling. Perfect love and perfect harmony should exist between wife and husband during this vital period.

5. AN ILl.u.s.tRATION.--If a sudden and powerful emotion of a woman's mind exerts such an influence upon her stomach as to excite vomiting, and upon her heart as almost to arrest its motion and induce fainting, can we believe that it will have no effect upon her womb and the fragile being contained within it? Facts and reason then, alike demonstrate the reality of the influence, and much practical advantage would result to both parent and child, were the conditions and extent of its operations better understood.

6. PREGNANT WOMEN should not be exposed to causes likely to distress or otherwise strongly impress their minds. A consistent life with worthy objects constantly kept in mind should be the aim and purpose of every expectant mother. {303}

CASES CITED.

We selected only a few cases to ill.u.s.trate the above statement. Thousands of cases occur every year that might be cited to ill.u.s.trate these principles. A mother cannot be too careful, and she should have the hearty co-operation and a.s.sistance of her husband. We quote the following cases from Dr. Pancoast's Medical Guide, who is no doubt one of the best authorities on the subject.

1. A woman bitten on the v.u.l.v.a by a dog, bore a child having a similar wound on the glans p.e.n.i.s. The boy suffered from epilepsy, and when the fit came on, or during sleep, was frequently heard to cry out, "The dog bites me!"

2. A pregnant woman who was suddenly alarmed from seeing her husband come home with one side of his face swollen and distorted by a blow, bore a girl with a purple swelling upon the same side of the face.

3. A woman, who was forced to be present at the opening of a calf by a butcher, bore a child with all its bowels protruding from the abdomen. She was aware at the time of something going on within the womb.

4. A pregnant woman fell into a violent pa.s.sion at not being able to procure a particular piece of meat of a butcher; she bled at the nose, and wiping the blood from her lips, bore a child wanting a lip.

5. A woman absent from home became alarmed by seeing a great fire in the direction of her own house, bore a child with a distinct mark of the flame upon its forehead.

6. A woman who had borne healthy children, became frightened by a beggar with a wooden leg and a stumped arm, who threatened to embrace her. Her next child had one stump leg and two stump arms.

7. A woman frightened in her first pregnancy by the sight of a child with a hare lip, had a child with a deformity of the same kind. Her second child had a deep slit, and the third a mark of a similar character or modified hare lips. In this instance the morbid mind of the mother affected several successive issues of her body.

8. A pregnant woman became frightened at a lizard jumping into her bosom.

She bore a child with a fleshy excrescence exactly resembling a lizard, growing from the breast, adhering by the head and neck.

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The Care of New-Born Infants.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

1. The first thing to be done ordinarily is to give the little stranger a bath by using soap and warm water. To remove the white material that usually covers the child use olive oil, goose oil or lard, and apply it with a soft piece of worn flannel, and when the child is entirely clean rub all off with a fresh piece of flannel.

2. Many physicians in the United States recommend a thorough oiling of the child with pure lard or olive oil, and then rub dry as above stated. By these means water is avoided, and with it much risk of taking cold.

3. The application of brandy or liquor is entirely unnecessary, and generally does more injury than good. {305}

4. If an infant should breathe feebly, or exhibit other signs of great feebleness, it should not be washed at once, but allowed to remain quiet and undisturbed, warmly wrapped up until the vital actions have acquired a fair degree of activity.

5. DRESSING THE NAVEL.--There is nothing better for dressing the navel than absorbent antiseptic cotton. There needs be no grease or oil upon the cotton. After the separation of the cord the navel should be dressed with a little cosmoline, still using the absorbent cotton. The navel string usually separates in a week's time; it may be delayed for twice this length of time, this will make no material difference, and the rule is to allow it to drop off of its own accord.