Getting ready to be a mother

by Carolyn Conant Van Blarcom

The third or reparative stage, which follows, occupies about three days during which time the uterus and its lining return to their normal state.

The fourth, or quiescent stage, now follows and lasts twelve or fourteen days. This is the time remaining before Nature, with unwearying patience, begins all over again to prepare for the reception and attachment of the next matured ovum, in ease of its possible fertilization. And so it goes, month after month and year after year.

It is very important for a woman who is suffering from painful menstruation to consult a doctor about correcting the cause, in the interests of her future childbearing, if for no other reason, for this is one step toward preparing a good soil in which to plant the seed from which a baby may grow. For example, a misplacement of the uterus is a frequent cause of painful menstruation and if it remains uncorrected may make conception impossible; or if conception perchance does take place, the malposition of the uterus may, later, be the cause of an abortion or miscarriage. Inflammation of the lining of the uterus is another cause of menstrual difficulty and if allowed to persist, may interfere later on with the normal development and nourishment of the baby.

The menopause, also termed the climacteric, or the change of life, marks the permanent stopping of menstruation and ability to bear children. This ordinarily occurs between the ages of forty and fifty, the majority of women ceasing to menstruate during their forty-sixth year.

The most favorable age for motherhood to begin is a subject of considerable interest to most women. When it is considered from all standpoints, social, ethical, spiritual as well as physical, the most favorable age for motherhood to begin seems to be sometime in the early twenties. Children have been born to little girls nine years old and to women over sixty, but the extremes of the reproductive years are not favorable periods for childbearing.

Now a word about the breasts. They appear to be merely large, soft masses of fat, one on each side of the chest, having no connection with the pelvic organs. But in reality they are very complicated glands and strangely enough, though no one knows why, their activities are controlled by the activities of the generative organs down in the pelvis. Certain it is that their function is very important to the baby, for the breasts are the factories in which nourishment is produced to nourish him during the first few months after he is born.

Fig. 5.—Front view of breast, showing areola; openings from milk ducts and the glands beneath the skin.

If we could look inside of the breasts we should see that in structure they are much like several clusters of grapes in which the stems and grapes are hollow. The milk is formed in the tiny sacs corresponding to the grapes, and pours into the little tubes conforming to the stems; these empty into a central tube, opening upon the surface of the nipple from which the baby will extract his nourishment. If you will look at Fig. [5] you will see in that picture of the front of a breast, that a part of it apparently has been magnified to show these openings of the milk ducts. There are about fifteen or twenty of them in each nipple. The picture shows also the little glands which appear as small lumps under the skin around the nipple, both in the dark circle called the areola and in the white skin surrounding it.

Summing up this chapter briefly, we find that the pelvis is an irregular, bony canal or basin, drawn in about the middle, thus forming the upper, or false pelvis and lower or true pelvis, neither of which has a bottom. The opening between these two basins is called the inlet, while the lower margin of the true pelvis is called the outlet, but it is the inlet that is of particular importance during childbirth. In the center of the lower pelvis and swung upon ligaments attached to its sides is the uterus, whose lower part, called the cervix, extends downward into the vagina; while reaching out from the upper corners of the uterus are the tubes, and near their open ends, one on each side, are the ovaries filled with germ cells called ova. The bladder lies in front of the uterus and vagina and the rectum behind, while below is the perineum, forming a floor to the pelvic cavity. Every four weeks during the childbearing years an ovum is expelled from one of the ovaries into the abdominal cavity and the uterus regularly prepares to receive it in case of its fertilization, but if it is not fertilized the ovum is lost and menstruation occurs.