Nervousness—Mental Despondency—Longing—The Imagination—Effects of Fright.
During that portion of the woman’s life in which she is capable of bringing forth children, a period usually of about thirty years, the uterus may be justly considered as the great center of her system. The truth of no observation in medicine has been more generally acknowledged than that of the extreme irritability of this organ, and of the propensity or aptitude which the whole body has to become affected or disturbed by its influence. In the progress of the development of the procreative function, great changes take place; and in pregnancy these effects are not the less remarkable.
The changes which are wrought in the system by pregnancy are not less remarkable in the nervous system than in the other parts of the body. The womb itself is highly endowed with nervous connections and sympathies, and in many respects the uterus, during the child-bearing period, may be considered the great nervous center of the female.
When it is remembered how extremely impressible the nervous system becomes during pregnancy, we are taught the importance of preventing women, under these circumstances, from witnessing things that are calculated powerfully to excite the mind. This caution is especially to be observed in regard to exposing her to scenes of suffering, distress, danger, or the agonies of a death-bed. It is a sad thing for a pregnant woman to lose a husband, child, or other near and dear friend.
Pregnant women should be very careful to avoid the sight of convulsive and nervous affections. They should not, on any account, be present when another is in labor; for it has been observed that some become greatly terrified under such circumstances, while of themselves they are able to pass through its agonies with all commendable courage.
MENTAL DESPONDENCY.
When we consider how important an epoch the period of pregnancy is in a woman’s life, we cannot be surprised that her mind should sometimes fall into a state of depression, out of which it is not in her own power, or that of any who are about her, to recall it. In the first pregnancy especially, the mind is apt to become thus affected. Shall I be able to survive the period? Shall I bring forth a well-formed, or a diseased, misshapen, deformed child? Will it not present badly at birth? Shall I not have twins, or triplets, perhaps? What new and untold agonies must I be brought to endure? These, and the like questions, must suggest themselves to the mind of every sensible and reflecting woman, and more particularly so when she is carrying her first child. And so it should be; for, say what we will about the safety of labor, about its being a natural process, etc., there are yet the pains and perils which belong necessarily to it, and which all of your sex who bear children must inevitably, to a greater or less extent, be subject to. I have not, I trust, heretofore, in my medical lifetime, been wholly unmindful of my duty as a physician, in endeavoring to instruct and to encourage your sex in these matters. But I have never wished to conceal my conviction that I regard pregnancy and childbirth as things of very serious moment in a woman’s life; and he who can trifle with them is almost worse than a very fiend. Bear witness, then, I respectfully ask of all of you, that I, for one, have no sympathy with that nonsensical foolishness which would lead some people to tell you that pregnancy and childbirth are matters which need cause you no trouble, no agony, and no pain. I repeat, then, considering the truth in these things, it is not at all surprising that the pregnant woman should feel a good deal of concern in consequence of what she is to pass through.
But I must tell you also, that this mental solicitude is often increased to an unnecessary extent by the inadvertent remarks which are sometimes made respecting some unfavorable case. One tells of one sad accident, and one of another. Now all this is both unkind and unjust. Only place yourselves in the case of the pregnant woman. Would you like to have those strange and horrible stories told you, some of which may be true, and some not? Would you not rather that your sisters would speak to you, generally, at least, of pleasant occurrences, and of pleasant things? If they could not speak to you in a hopeful manner, certainly you would rather they would not speak to you at all.
Did you ever think of one of your sisters who is pregnant with an illegitimate child? If you who have kind husbands and kind friends to take care of you, become low-spirited in pregnancy, what must be the feelings of her who knows that she must constantly be looked upon as an object of shame? What think you of her who has been led astray by the profligate from virtue’s paths of pleasantness and peace? of her who is compelled to consider her pregnancy as a curse instead of a blessing, and who has, in addition to the troubles of this state, to bear up against the agony of her disappointed hopes, her sorrows, and her grief. She must live in anticipation of a shame from which she can find no antidote, no retreat. How often, alas! has such a state of mind ended in a state of disease which has, in a short period, terminated life. Believe we that Jesus of Nazareth would treat such a one as we too often have done, when we know that He said, kindly and affectionately, to a woman who had been caught in the very act of adultery, “Go, and sin no more!” Many a one has been thus disowned who might have been a loving mother and an affectionate companion through a long and happy life, and whose death-agonies were only the more embittered by the reflections of her fallen and deserted state.
In ordinary cases depression of the spirits is most apt to come on during the earlier months of gestation. Dr. Montgomery speaks of a curious fact connected with the state of mind in pregnant women, when their bodily health is at the same time good, namely, that however depressed or dispirited with gloomy forebodings they may have felt in the early part of their pregnancy, they in general gradually resume their natural cheerfulness as gestation advances; and a short time before labor actually commences, often feel their spirits rise, and their bodily activity increase to a degree they had not enjoyed for months before. This, however, does not always take place, for in some cases the despondency continues to the very end of the period, at which time it generally disappears, but not until the pains of labor have actually commenced. With some, likewise, the despondency continues even after the labor has been passed through, and amounts almost to a fit of mental derangement.