All women naturally desire to have children. If they do not, they are the victims of false ideas or of fear. Anything which is natural is the best, so usually a woman who bears children is much healthier than one who does not. Think of the women of your acquaintance and see if the mothers are not happier and healthier than the women who are childless.
CHAPTER X
MATERNAL IMPRESSIONS—HEREDITY
Every child has a right to be born well. An undesired child never should be brought into the world. An undesired child or a child of parents who are not in good bodily or mental condition comes into the world with an inheritance that perhaps never is overcome. How can we expect children of parents with criminal tendencies to become good citizens?
Children born in circumstances under which the expectant mother has been subjected to fright or to cruel treatment are handicapped in the very beginning of life's race. Maternal impressions from fright or physical violence undoubtedly are followed by the birth of individuals malformed and in many respects with altered minds. Although some biologists try to deny this, the coincidence is too widely observed to admit of doubt, although the precise manner in which the effect is produced has not been clearly demonstrated. Sufficient is known to make it of the utmost importance that, in the interest of her offspring, the expectant mother be not subjected to sudden or violent mechanical force or to any great nervous shock. Equally important is it that she should be surrounded by a harmonious environment in order to give the unborn child all possible benefit of such surroundings.
By many it is claimed that the mother's mental condition during this period will be reflected in the child both mentally and physically. For instance if the mother be calm, free from worry and happy in anticipation of the coming event, her offspring will have a sound nervous system, shown by a perfect digestion and an excellent disposition: while if the mother be irritable and unhappy her child is inclined to have various digestive ills, as well as to be cross and restless.
Great disturbances in the expectant mother's health also have their effect upon the child. The erroneous idea that there is no life before the third or fifth month allows many conscientious women to attempt measures that will cause the discharge of the products of conception. These measures not only are dangerous to the health or the life of the woman but, in the event of their proving unsuccessful, may result in the birth of a deformed or a mentally defective child.
Parents who have become degenerate from the immoderate use of alcohol or other stimulants or those who are afflicted with one of the black plagues furnish further examples of the birth of deficient offspring.