LONGINGS.
Some women, when pregnant, experience the most strange and wayward desires in regard to particular articles of food. This sensation is what is commonly called longing; and it is believed that if the preternatural craving is not gratified, a likeness or representation of the article longed for is very apt to be impressed upon the child.
It is true that some writers of eminence—as Professor Meigs, of Philadelphia, for example—have doubted the existence of any such sensation as the one in question; but the majority of writers are of the opposite opinion. Women also themselves—and they ought to be the best judges in a matter of this kind—do tell us that they know positively the truth of such a sensation as longing.
There are some remarkable facts on record concerning the symptoms which I am considering, and which would go to prove that it is not always the good things of this world that are longed for. If women were always in the habit of craving good and savory dishes under these circumstances, we should have some reason to suspect them of dishonesty in regard to the reality of longing; but when the fickle and morbid appetite is found often to crave the most unrelishable articles, we must admit the truth of the doctrine of which we are speaking.
A lady has been known, who, when not pregnant, having a great horror of eating eels, and yet when in this situation she has demanded them with an importunity not to be resisted. She would not only eat them with avidity, but in large and repeated quantities, for the first few months; she would then become indifferent to them, but not averse, until after her delivery.
A woman pregnant, riding over a common, has scented spoiled shad that had been thrown out, and became instantly so fascinated by their odor, that she obliged her husband to take some of them into his gig; and as soon as she arrived at home, began to eat of them, raw as they were, and continued to do so daily until they were consumed, though they were extremely offensive to every body else in the house.
A woman pregnant, while passing through her kitchen, has taken a disgusting piece of bacon boiling in a soap-kettle, out of the vessel, eating it afterward, with the greatest relish.
These are, it is true, extreme cases; but there are many which are far from being of a character so trifling as to warrant the conclusion that no such thing as longing for strange and disgusting articles during pregnancy exists. Indeed, the truth of the doctrine is so well understood among all classes as not to need any further proof.
Should these longings in pregnancy be gratified, and if so, to what extent? This is a question of great practical importance, and one which should be deeply pondered upon.
It is notorious, in the first place, that longing seldom, if ever, occurs in a woman of good health and a well-constituted mind. If we observe correctly, we shall find that it occurs seldom, if ever, in any other than delicate and nervously irritable women.
It occurs, in the second place, particularly among those who are indolent in their habits, having little or nothing to do, and without any wholesome object of thought or occupation with which to “kill time.”
It occurs, in the third place, to those who have been in the habit of being pampered and indulged on every occasion. A woman who is continually in the habit of saying to her indulgent husband that she wants this, that, and the other thing, and if the good husband sees fit to gratify his interesting spouse in every thing which a morbid fancy can imagine, he will have business enough to kill his time, and a feeble, sickly wife in the bargain.
If this longing occurs only to the feeble and delicate, to the nervous, the indolent, and those who have been habitually pampered, what, I ask, are we to do in the premises? Shall we gratify every whim of a nervous, unhealthy person, or shall we rather advise her to live on plain and wholesome food, at the same time directing her to occupy herself, body and mind, as a reasonable being should? It does not certainly require much common sense to enable one to settle this question as it should be.
But there are those among women who honestly believe that if their cravings are not satisfied in pregnancy, the child is very liable to become marked with an appearance like that of the article longed for.
The fallacy of this belief will at once be apparent, when it is considered how many cases of longing there are—cases, too, which are never gratified, while, at the same time, but very few children are ever found marked. The imagination can have no more effect here than in the cases of malformation, the absence or addition of a part, or in determining the color of a child. Hence a woman need not fear, as I have known them to do, that if their morbid appetite is not gratified in every particular, they are in danger of bringing forth a marked child. But more of this in another place.
Some physicians are of the opinion, it is true, that it is best to gratify longings to a certain extent. But suppose they are not gratified: the worst that can come is sickness at the stomach, nausea, and possibly vomiting—symptoms which, all of them, vanish soon enough, ordinarily, if the diet is made what it should be, in connection with good habits generally.
The truth is, that the mind itself is more disordered than the stomach in these cases. Hence an important consideration in the cure of it is, to provide the individual with some useful and wholesome employment, which at the same time engages both the mind and body healthfully. At the same time the food should be of such a character as is best suited to a delicate state of the system, remembering always, that there is no period of life in which more care is necessary, in this respect, than in pregnancy.
But if, on the other hand, the preternatural craving is indulged, and the mind is left to prey upon itself, as it will without any suitable employment, the sensation will grow more and more persistent, and the fancy will be continually excited to produce new whims for its gratification, which, if answered, must necessarily be attended with detriment to both mother and child.