Because of their deleterious tendency, severe study as well as arduous and protracted manual labor ought to be avoided. The nervous systems of many women are also injuriously affected during pregnancy by perfumes, which at other times are agreeable and innocuous. It is therefore prudent not only to exclude all offensive scents, but also to abstain from the strong odors of various strong perfumes, eau-de-cologne, and of flowers. Large bouquets often cause feelings of faintness, and sometimes temporary loss of consciousness. The extreme liability of the nervous system of the pregnant woman to be affected injuriously to herself and child by scenes of suffering or distress, and by disgusting or frightful objects, cannot be too strongly impressed upon every one. She should be protected from all that will disturb her, and should be constantly treated with soothing and encouraging kindness. Her manifestations of irritability, her caprices, her melancholy anticipations, are not to be scoffed at, but combated with a mixture of reasoning and patient forbearance. On her part, she should endeavour to co-operate with those around her, in sedulously shunning all injurious influences, and in banishing as quickly as possible all improper longings. She should remember that, although she herself may escape mischief from them, her child may suffer. She is the custodian of interests dearer to her than her own.
RELATION OF HUSBAND AND WIFE DURING PREGNANCY.
During those days when the wife, if she were not pregnant, would have been 'unwell,' marital intercourse should be abstained from. It is then injurious to the mother, and dangerous to the life of the child, as it is liable to excite miscarriage. But if this habitual epoch of the monthly sickness be avoided, there is no reason why passion should not be gratified in moderation and with caution during the whole period of pregnancy. There is one exception to be made to this general course of conduct. In those cases in which a miscarriage has occurred in the first pregnancy, every precaution should be employed—for reasons which have been dwelt upon in a previous article—to prevent its happening again after the second conception. Under such exceptional circumstances, therefore, the husband and wife should sleep apart during the first five months of pregnancy. After that period their ordinary relations may be resumed. When a miscarriage has taken place, intercourse should not be permitted within a month of the accident. The observance of this direction is of the utmost importance. Its neglect is the frequent cause of severe and intractable diseases of the womb.
EFFECT OF PREGNANCY ON HEALTH.
We have had occasion to remark that pregnancy is not a condition of disease. It is not only an evidence of health, but during its continuance it confers increased physical vigor. As a rule, a woman enjoys better health during her pregnancy than at any other time; she is less liable to contagious and other maladies; she is less apt to die than at any other period of her life; and her general constitution seems also then to receive a favorable impress, for wives and mothers live longer than celibates. It is wisely decreed that when woman is engaged in this, to her, anxious stage of reproduction, she shall not be exposed to the pains and dangers of disease, and that those great covenants of nature—marriage and child-bearing—shall be rewarded by added strength and length of days.
There are certain disorders incident, in exceptional cases, to pregnancy, of which we shall shortly speak. In general, however, we repeat that this condition is one of extraordinary health. More than this, in numerous instances it exerts an ameliorating influence upon pre-existing diseases, suspending their march, or bringing about a decidedly curative effect. Thus, various obstinate chronic affections of the skin, of the womb and ovaries, and of the brain and nervous system, frequently get well during pregnancy; and it is well known to every physician, that by the judicious management of this state, and of the lying-in period, troublesome displacements of the womb may be arrested.
It should nevertheless ever be recollected that the condition of pregnancy is one of excitement and enhanced susceptibility to impressions of all kinds. For this reason a change in the habits of life is necessary; and the importance of the directions laid down for the care of the health during this period, cannot be too strongly insisted upon.
The diseases to which the wife is exposed during pregnancy will be treated of in the chapter on ['Health in Marriage.']