The pregnant woman, however, is especially liable to suffer from the multiform miseries of dyspepsia. Her nervous organization is peculiarly sensitive at this time. Many symptoms are also caused by reflex action from the gravid uterus upon the sympathetic ganglia which control the alimentary processes.
Morning sickness.—Nausea, with or without vomiting, occurs so frequently in pregnancy that most women think it a natural accompaniment of their condition, relying upon it as a diagnostic symptom. It may begin the day following conception, but usually appears from the sixth to the eighth week. It is unlike nausea which accompanies biliousness, fevers, the effect of drugs, or even sea-sickness. It is a nausea that one feels from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet; one is “sick to the stomach” all over.
Asking the cause of this, ninety-nine out of a hundred aver they believe it to be natural, and more than all, not to be avoided. Besides, the grandmother of the neighborhood has told them that on account of this, the child will be more healthy, and the delivery easier. Facts do not bear her out in either assertion.
The real causes are to be sought in the violation of physical laws, in dress, diet, exercise, etc. The conditions are, first, an irritation in the womb caused by some existing derangement, which by sympathetic or reflex action is communicated to the stomach, and second, that state commonly called biliousness.
The whole body is supplied with nerves distributed from the brain and spinal column. Besides these, ganglia of sympathetic nerves communicate with all nerves and with each other, being so interlaced that almost every part of the body is in communication with every other part. It is really a complete system of telegraphy. Both the uterus and stomach are remarkable in their supply of nerves, and any disturbance in the former is instantly conveyed to the latter.
It is not unusual that an inflammation or displacement of the womb gives no local symptoms—but by reflex action there are headaches, indigestion, neuralgia, and various ailments. So, of the gravid uterus, if from any existing local disease or any cause in the system, it does not take kindly to its new function, and derangement in the organ ensues, instead of causing local pain and distress it will be communicated to other organs, most frequently to the stomach, producing nausea, vomiting, as well as often acute suffering.
What is biliousness? Ladies, you know the condition to which you apply this term. Frequent headaches, aversion to food, aching of the bones, languid, sleepy and tired feeling. You get up in the morning weary, cross, irritable, out of sorts with everybody, and everybody retaliates by being out of sorts with you. What has happened in the human organism? What do you understand by biliousness? Listen to the answers. One says, “It is an overflow of bile,” others, “Too much bile,” “The liver don’t act,” “The bile has reverted back to the blood,” “The bile is secreted by the stomach,” “Too high living,” etc.
Dr. Dio Lewis says: “Biliousness is piggishness.” My habit has been to define it simply as overfeeding. At least, the elements of the bile are in the blood in excess of the power of the liver to eliminate them. This may be caused by either inaction of the organ itself, or superabundance of the materials from which the bile is made. Being thus retained the system is burdened, or to use a homely but expressive phrase, is clogged. To produce this, food may be too great in quantity, or too rich in quality. Especially is it caused by the excessive use of fats and sweets. How does this biliousness produce nausea in the pregnant woman, and why does it show itself in this way, when she was comparatively well previous to this condition?
In the new process of gestation the whole system is roused to action, and nature makes an effort to relieve the organs of all foreign or bilious matter. Her first means to produce this result is by nausea and vomiting. Many women have an attack of bilious fever, more or less severe, in the first months of pregnancy.
Three causes may induce this state of the system: food which is too nutritive or too abundant; lack of exercise conducive to normal action in the assimilative organs; and clothing that in any way restricts this action. At any time, the bands and corsets so universally comprising a part of woman’s dress are injurious, because they restrict the action of the liver and other organs, but they are doubly deleterious when there is a natural increase in size. The direct pressure of the viscera upon the uterus will also produce irritation in that organ.