CAUSES OF PROTRACTED PREGNANCY.
It has been asserted by some that an infant is born at ten or eleven months because at nine months it has not acquired the growth which is necessary in order to induce the womb to dislodge it. The popular notion is, that a child carried beyond the usual term must necessarily be a large one. Rabelais has reflected this common opinion in his celebrated romance entitled 'Gargantua,' in which he represents the royal giant of that name as having been carried by his mother, Gargamelle, eleven months. When born, the child was so vigorous that he sucked the milk from ten nurses. He lived for several centuries, and at last begot a son, Pantagruel, as wonderful as himself. Such reasoning cannot, however, be seriously maintained, as many children carried longer than nine months have not been more fully developed than some born a few weeks prematurely; and the size of the child has nothing to do with the bringing on of labor, as we shall show hereafter. Protracted pregnancies are caused by a defect in the energy of the womb, induced by moral as well as physical influences. As a rule, a woman who leads a regular life, and observes the physiological laws of her being, which laws it has been our aim to point out, will be confined at the term that nature usually marks out, that is, at the expiration of two hundred and eighty days, or forty weeks, from conception.
This brings us to the consideration of the question,
HOW TO CALCULATE THE TIME OF EXPECTED LABOR.
Many rules for this purpose have been laid down. We shall merely give one, the most satisfactory and the most easily applied. It was suggested by the celebrated Professor Naëgelè of Heidelberg, and is now generally recommended and employed by physicians. The point of departure in making the calculation is the day of the disappearance of the last monthly sickness; three months are subtracted, and seven days added. The result corresponds to the day on which labor will commence, and will be found to be two hundred and eighty days from the time of conception, if that event has occurred, as ordinarily, immediately after the last menstrual period. Suppose, for instance, the cessation of the last monthly sickness happened on the 14th day of January; subtract three months, and we have October 14; then add seven days, and we obtain the 21st day of the ensuing October (two hundred and eighty days from January 14) as the time of the expected confinement. This method of making the 'count' may be relied upon with confidence, and only fails, by a few days, in those exceptional cases in which conception takes place just before the monthly period, or during the menstrual flow.
CARE OF HEALTH DURING PREGNANCY.
This subject, the proper management of the health from conception to childbirth, is worthy of careful consideration. The condition of pregnancy, though not one of disease, calls for peculiar solicitude, lest it should lead to some affection in the mother or in the child. For it ought to be remembered that the welfare of a new being is now in the balance. The woman has no longer an independent existence. She has entered upon the circle of her maternal duties. She became a mother when she conceived. The child, though unborn, lives within her; its life is a part of her own, and so frail, that any indiscretion on her part may destroy it. The danger to the child is not imaginary, as the large number of miscarriages and still-births proves.
All mothers desire to have healthy, well-formed, intelligent children. How few conduct themselves in such a manner as to secure a happy development of their offspring! Puny, deformed, and feeble-minded infants are daily ushered into the world because of a want of knowledge, or a sinful neglect of those special measures imperatively demanded in the ordering of the daily life, by the changed state of the system consequent upon pregnancy. We shall therefore point out those laws which cannot be infringed with impunity, and indicate the diet, exercise, dress, and, in general, the conduct most favorable to the mother and child during this critical period, in which the wife occupies, as it were, an intermediate state between health and sickness.
FOOD.
The nourishment taken during pregnancy should be abundant, but not, in the early months, larger in quantity than usual. Excess in eating or drinking ought to be most carefully avoided. The food is to be taken at shorter intervals than is common, and it should be plain, simple, and nutritious. Fatty articles, the coarser vegetables, highly salted and sweet food, if found to disagree, as is often the case, should be abstained from. The flesh of young animals—as lamb, veal, chicken, and fresh fish—is wholesome, and generally agrees with the stomach. Ripe fruits are beneficial. The diet should be varied as much as possible from day to day. The craving which some women have in the night or early morning may be relieved by a biscuit, a little milk, or a cup of coffee. When taken a few hours before rising, this will generally be retained, and prove very grateful, even though the morning sickness be troublesome. Any food or medicine that will confine or derange the bowels is to be forbidden. The taste is, as a rule, a safe guide, and it may be reasonably indulged. But inordinate, capricious desires for improper, noxious articles, should of course, be opposed. Such longings, however, are not often experienced by those properly brought up. It is a curious fact, that the modification in the digestive system during pregnancy is sometimes so great that substances ordinarily the most indigestible are eaten, without any inconvenience, and even with benefit, while the most healthful articles become hurtful, and act like poison.