Lysistrata

by Anthony M. Ludovici

Now it may be stated straight away that there are no human functions that have got into a more alarming state of abnormality and muddle than gestation, parturition, and lactation. Indeed, so great are the divergences from Nature in the two latter functions, that it is no exaggeration to say that, all hope of ever recovering normal conditions having long since been abandoned, all persons have now resigned themselves to an almost complete reliance on artificial aids. In the middle and so-called “upper” classes instruments and anæsthetics are now very nearly the rule in helping the function of parturition, while among the poorer classes they are very common. And in regard to lactation, all kinds of unnatural food, including, of course, cow’s milk, take the place of breast-feeding.

The doctors, the nurses, the mothers, and the whole population have, we declare, resigned themselves to the modern conditions of difficult and scientifically aided childbirth; but it would be more strictly accurate to say that they have meekly prostrated themselves before a fait accompli; for, as far as we have been able to judge, no attempt on a grand scale has ever yet been made to ascertain whether the present difficulties are as hopelessly inevitable as they seem, or whether a more normal method of functioning might not be recovered.

The ugly circumstances of modern childbirth, mitigated to some extent only by a liberal use of anæsthetics, are now sufficient to intimidate any young woman who happens to reflect, before marriage, on her future prospects; while to those already married they constitute a heavy lowering cloud, which hardly ever disperses until the climacteric at last puts an end to all anxiety. Stated in the most moderate terms, these ugly circumstances at least add to the arguments which, in our Puritanical and Feminist atmosphere, accumulate year by year against both the body and the sexual life; and for this reason alone, if for no other, it is important for us to examine them and to see how, or whether, they can be mitigated.

The curious part of it is that, here, we are not confronted by degeneration or malformation nearly to the extent that some people suppose; but by ignorance, lack of initiative in the medical profession, and the foolish superstitions of all the chief actors in the muddle—the expectant mothers, the doctors, and the nurses.

A certain percentage of births still takes place each year under normal conditions—that is to say, without anæsthetics or instruments; but even of these it is safe to say that they are accompanied by much more pain than can possibly be natural; while, owing to circumstances quite independent of the mother’s bodily condition, even these cases often receive quite unnecessary scientific aid.

The circumstances that cause doctors to interfere more and more frequently with confinements that promise to be normal are the following: In the well-to-do classes, the extreme busyness of the doctor, on the one hand, which makes him disinclined to wait for Nature to do her work; and, on the other, his interested relationship to his patient, which makes it almost necessary for him to appear as her champion. By encouraging the patient to be put to sleep and to allow the process to be hurried, the doctor thus kills two birds with one stone. After only a few hours’ labour, therefore, he will employ anæsthetics, and the result is that what might have been a fairly normal confinement, free from anæsthesia and instruments, becomes a serious operation, in which damage is frequently inflicted on the young mother.

In the poorer classes the same thing happens, except that poor women often go to some public institution to be confined. It should not be forgotten, however, that young and aspiring doctors have to acquire some practice with the obstetric forceps, and that it is precisely in homes and hospitals that this practice can be obtained. Instead of its being the excessive busyness of the doctor that leads to the hasty and unnecessary use of instruments, therefore, it is now the circumstance that the woman may find herself in a maternity-home or hospital. And the tragic part of it is that the demonstrating surgeon in such cases, far from electing an abnormal pregnancy for his exhibition, deliberately chooses the most normal of his patients, because of the greater ease with which the demonstration can then be made. Thus, even when Nature is most willing and modern women are most normal, natural functioning is spurned and rebuffed. Such cases, however, are possible only in an atmosphere that has long been infected with body-despising prejudices. In no other atmosphere would the doctors dare to behave in this way.

At all events, among both the rich and the poor, normal confinements are becoming increasingly rare, and we shall now try to discover why, except in case of obvious abnormality, this is so; and why, moreover, even in normal confinements there is always, or almost always, the alleged “sorrow” or excessive pain of biblical tradition.

Provisionally we suggest the following reasons for the difficulties of parturition among modern women, and for the fact that nothing is done to restore more normal functioning:

(a) The absurd superstition that our heads are getting larger and that the pelves of women are getting smaller. Doctors are persuaded that the difficulty of modern childbirth must be due to “Progress.” And, since “Progress” is erroneously connected in their own and most people’s minds with the belief that men are growing more intelligent (which quite obviously they are not), the facile conclusion is reached that, as our brains must be growing larger, our heads must follow suit. It is hardly necessary to say that this is sheer nonsense, and no more than an indolent excuse for the Conservative stagnation of the medical brotherhood. The heads of modern people are certainly not larger than the heads of their ancestors ten thousand years ago (vide Keith’s Antiquity of Man); and as to the shrinking of women’s hips, this also is an invention. It is certainly found, but only where the pelvis is rachitic, or where undue strains on the thighs in early childhood (in violent games, etc.) have led to a premature stiffening of the fleshy, and a premature ossification of the bony, parts. At all events, it is much less common than is usually supposed; and, in any case, it is very seldom that there is any disproportion between the sizes of the foetus and the pelvis. See, however, how convenient the explanation is—Increasing brains, larger heads, and shrinking pelves!—The doctors, shrugging their shoulders before this apparently vicious circle, can quietly resign themselves, à la Walrus and Carpenter, to a permanent engagement as artificial functionaries to supersede a perfectly natural human function; and, what is more, they need feel no dread about growing thinner or poorer themselves as time goes on, nor trouble to discover how normal functioning can be recovered.