From first to last, the pregnant woman’s dress should be physiological and hygienic. Perfect freedom for every physical power must be secured. What does this demand? Emphatically looseness and lightness, as well as sufficient and equable warmth. See to it that not one article of dress impedes, in the slightest degree, the functions of the body. To accomplish this, one must do away with bands, bones and petticoats.
One already dressing healthfully needs to make but little change for pregnancy. Under all circumstances and at all times, dress should cause no restriction to respiration; no interference with digestion; no obstruction to circulation. In pregnancy, furthermore, there should be no hindrance to the development and elevation of the uterus. To accomplish this, a radical change must be made in the usual dress of woman. It is now a complete failure as far as fulfilling any useful requirements, and for decorative purposes rules of art are violated.
Dr. Trall says, “If he were asked what one agency stands at the very head of morbific influences, in causing frailty and malformation, he should answer woman’s dress.”
The present movement in dress reform, or correct dress, combines art, health and utility. One of the most notable features is that each lady is free to construct her own styles, and in no wise feels bound to conform to fashion. This movement is wide-spread and seems to have a firm foothold among women of all classes.
One can be dressed decently, decorously, harmoniously; yes, even elegantly, and still commit no grave violation against physiological law. How can this be done? What changes from the ordinary dress does this involve? Let us begin at the foundation:
A common sense shoe should be worn. This is constructed upon anatomical principles, allowing freedom of all the muscles and producing no pressure upon the nerves or blood-vessels. The sole is as wide as the bottom of the foot, the heel is little if any higher than the sole. The curve and elasticity of the arch and the freedom of the toes are assured.
Many women suffer from headache, defects in vision, loss of voice, indigestion, backache, etc., simply from reflex action of the pressure of the shoes upon nerves of the foot. I have seen young girls often relieved of tedious backache, by following simply, and only the prescription of a change to common sense shoes. An elocutionist of fine physical development, weighing at least 170 pounds testified that he could not command the chest tones of his voice, if his boots caused the slightest compression of his feet. Are not women’s nerves as tell-tale in their communications as were those of this stalwart man!
Two bright, intelligent young ladies entered a very crowded south side car. One, with a scowl of pain and fatigue upon her face, said, “I do wish some gentleman would give me a seat. My feet are just coming off.” Her companion answered gaily: “Oh, I don’t care to sit down. I can stand as well as any man, and so could you if you wore common sense shoes.”
Reader, this is not all you could do “as well as a man” if your feet were your untrammeled servants.
Do you say that these shoes are inelegant and you can not endure them? No sensible person can really suppose that there is anything in itself ugly or even unsightly in the form of a perfect human foot; and yet all attempts to construct shoes upon its model are constantly met with the objection that something extremely inelegant must be the result. It will perhaps be a form to which the eye is not accustomed; but there is no more trite saying than the ordinary nature of fashion in her dealings with our outward appearance, and we all know how anything that has received her sanction is for the time being considered elegant and tasteful, though a few years later it may come to be looked upon as positively ridiculous.