The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother

by George H. Napheys

ARE THERE TWINS PRESENT?

Certain signs lead to the suspicion of twins, such as being unusually large, and the fact that the increase in size has been more than ordinarily rapid. Sometimes also the abdomen is divided into two distinct portions by a perpendicular fissure. In other cases the movements of a child can be felt on each side at the same time. And in twin pregnancies the morning sickness is apt to be more distressing, and all the other discomforts incident to this condition increased. But these signs and symptoms, when present in any given case, are not conclusive, for they may be noticed when there is only one child. The doctor has one characteristic and infallible sign by which he can ascertain whether the woman be pregnant with twins. It is furnished to him again by the art of listening,—or auscultation, as it is technically called,—the same that, as we have already seen, may enable him to determine the sex of the child. When the beatings of two fœtal hearts are heard on opposite portions of the abdomen, the nature of the pregnancy is apparent.

LENGTH OF PREGNANCY.

What is the ordinary duration of pregnancy? Almost every woman considers herself competent to make the answer—nine months. She may be surprised to learn, however, that such an answer is wanting in scientific precision. It is too indefinite, and is erroneous. There is a great difference between the calendar and the lunar month. Each lunar month having twenty-eight days, the period of nine lunar months is two hundred and fifty-two days. Nine calendar months, including February, represent, on the contrary, two hundred and seventy-three days. Now the average duration of pregnancy is two hundred and eighty days, that is forty weeks, or ten lunar months.

While most extended observations have shown that as a general rule, forty weeks, or two hundred and eighty days, is the true period of pregnancy, are we justified in the conclusion that this is its invariable duration? This important question, upon the answer to which so often depend the honor of families, the rights of individuals, and sometimes the interests of nationalities, has been in all times the subject of careful research by physicians, philosophers, and legislators. On the one side, have been those who contend that the laws of nature are invariable, and that the term of pregnancy is fixed and immutable. On the other side, have been those who assert that the epoch of accouchement can be greatly advanced or retarded by various causes, some of which are known, and others not yet appreciated. Abundant and satisfactory testimony has proved that the prolongation of pregnancy beyond the ordinary period of two hundred and eighty days, or forty weeks, is possible. Nor is this contrary to what is observed in regard to other functions of the human body. There is no process depending upon the laws of life which is absolutely invariable either as to the period of its appearance or duration. It is known, as we have already pointed out, that puberty may be advanced or retarded; the time at which the change of life occurs in women, as we shall have occasion hereafter to show, is also subject to variation; and it is a matter of common observation with mothers, that the period of teething is sometimes strangely hurried or delayed. A certain degree of variability, therefore, being frequently observed, and entirely compatible with health, in the various other natural processes, why should that of pregnancy form an exception, and be invariably fixed in its duration? And observation upon the lower animals affords most convincing evidence that nature is not controlled by any uniform law in reference to the length of pregnancy. In the cow, the usual period of whose pregnancy is the same as in the human female, instances of calving six weeks beyond the ordinary term are not at all uncommon.

As an illustration of the great interest sometimes attaching to the inquiry under discussion, we may cite the celebrated Gardner Peerage Case, tried by the House of Lords in 1825. Allen Legge Gardner petitioned to have his name inscribed as a peer on the Parliament Roll. He was the son of Lord Gardner by his second wife. There was another claimant for the peerage, however,—Henry Fenton Iadis,—on the ground, as alleged, that he was the son of Lord Gardner by his first and subsequently divorced wife. Medical and moral evidence was adduced to establish that the latter was illegitimate. Lady Gardner, the mother of the alleged illegitimate child, parted from her husband on the 30th of January, 1802, he going to the West Indies, and not again seeing his wife until the 11th of July following. The child whose legitimacy was called in question was born on the 8th of December of that year. The plain medical query therefore arose, Whether this child born either three hundred and eleven days after intercourse (from January 30th to December 8th), or one hundred and fifty days (from July 11th to December 8th), could be the son of Lord Gardner. As there was no pretence that there was a premature birth, the child having been well developed when born, the conception must have dated from January 30th. The medical question was therefore narrowed down to this: Was the alleged protracted pregnancy (three hundred and eleven days) consistent with experience? Sixteen of the principal obstetric practitioners of Great Britain were examined on this point. Eleven concurred in the opinion that natural pregnancy might be protracted to a period which would cover the birth of the alleged illegitimate child. Because, however, of the moral evidence alone, which proved the adulterous intercourse of Lady Gardner with a Mr. Iadis, the House decided that the title should descend to the son of the second Lady Gardner.

There is on record one fact, well observed, which establishes beyond cavil the possibility of the protraction of pregnancy beyond two hundred and eighty days, or forty weeks. The case is reported by the learned Dr. Desormeaux of Paris, and occurred under his own notice in the Hôpital de Maternité of that city. A woman, the mother of three children, became insane. Her physician thought that a new pregnancy might re-establish her intellectual faculties. Her husband consented to enter on the register of the hospital each visit he was allowed to make her, which took place only every three months. So soon as evidence of pregnancy showed itself, the visits were discontinued. The woman was confined two hundred and ninety days after conception.

The late distinguished Professor Charles D. Meigs of Philadelphia published a case, which he deems entirely trustworthy, of the prolongation of pregnancy to four hundred and twenty days, or sixty weeks. Dr. Atlee reports two cases, which nearly equaled three hundred and fifty-six days each. Professor Simpson of Edinburgh records, as having occurred in his own practice, cases in which the period reached three hundred and thirty-six, three hundred and thirty-two, three hundred and twenty-four, and three hundred and nineteen days. In the Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science a case of protracted pregnancy is related by Dr. Joynt. The evidence is positive that the minimum duration must have been three hundred and seventeen days, or about six weeks more than the average. Dr. Elsässer found, in one hundred and sixty cases of pregnancy, eleven protracted to periods varying from three hundred to three hundred and eighteen days.

In treating of the subject of miscarriage, we mentioned instances, recorded by physicians of skill and probity, proving beyond a shade of doubt that a woman may give birth to a living child long before the expiration of the forty weeks. The Presbytery of Edinburgh, Scotland, some time since decided in favor of the legitimacy of an infant born alive, within twenty-five weeks after marriage, to the Rev. Fergus Jardine.

One of the most enlightened countries in Europe has, in view of the facts in reference to the extreme limits of pregnancy, enacted, in the Code Napoléon, that a child born within three hundred days after the departure or death of the husband, or one hundred and eighty days after marriage, shall be considered legitimate. The law further states that a child born after more than three hundred days shall not be necessarily declared a bastard, but its legitimacy may be contested. The Scotch legislation on this subject is very similar to the French.