When you see or feel the first signs of this change, consult your mamma, and she will give you directions and advice about how to care for your person during the menses. This is a perfectly natural experience that all girls have. It indicates that the special organs are developing and preparing for motherhood. Menstruation is not a disease; it is a natural function. Girls should be proud of this new accession to their girlhood. Health, happiness, and beauty of womanhood and the sacred function of motherhood, which will one day declare them the sweetest and holiest of God’s creatures are vitally related to this function. Girls with perfect health, who are usefully and happily employed, who entertain no base ideas of this function and who pay no special attention to it, experience little or no pain and little flow.
Meaning of menstruation.—Ovulation and menstruation usually occur about the same time. Ovulation consists in the formation of an ovum or egg by one of the ovaries once a month. Without the formation of the ovum motherhood would not be possible. Menstruation consists of a flow of bloody mucus formed by the velvety lining of the womb. This has the effect of purifying a woman’s blood and preparing the womb to receive the ovum. After this change first takes place several years will be required before she is old enough to marry and raise a family. Until she is married, the ovum each month lingers in the womb a few days and then passes out. When she is married, if she and her husband are strong and healthy, at the close of some menstrual period a cell from the husband will unite with one of these little eggs, which will become attached to the velvety walls of the womb, the door to the womb will close, and this beginning life will grow for two hundred and eighty days, when the door of the womb will open and a little baby will be born into the home.
CHAPTER XVI
MOTHER’S THIRD TALK—CHOOSING A CHUM
Early Adolescence.—You are now entering upon that period of a girl’s life known as the adolescence period. You are now passing from girlhood to womanhood. This period will be about seven to eight years long. The first four years will be the most important years of your life. This is true for many reasons. During this period you will be largely a girl and partly a woman. The mind of the girl that was and the woman that you will be, will occasionally cause you to have confusing experiences. You will have many new and strange feelings, emotions, impulses. During these years you will need the advice of those older than yourself.
New social desires.—One of the new experiences you will have, will be the desire for social privileges. You will want a little girl chum. This is perfectly natural. God has given you a social nature. You should cultivate your social gifts. This will enlarge your happiness and usefulness.
Why a girl wants a chum.—The reason small girls desire chums is because the new sex life stimulates and awakens the social nature. This is a period in a girl’s life when she is especially interested in things romantic and sensational. Girls naturally choose their special chums, and it is so easy for them to engage in conversation that they would not want their mothers to hear. This sensational friendship might lead to exaggeration, disobedience, and the secret meetings with other girls or boys. It is not hard for a mother to see how her daughter might become thoughtless, rash, indiscreet and be overtaken in some very great wrong.
A girl needs two chums.—In this period of life little girls need two chums, her mother and a girl friend. She will often need her mother’s advice in the choice of a girl chum.
Choosing the right chum.—If you wish to have one or more girl friends, you should exercise great care in your choice. If you find a girl inclined to exaggeration, to use by-words, to use improper language while talking about her boy friends, to desire secret meetings with boys, however attractive she may be, you should not be chummy with her. To form intimate friendship with such girls would be a great risk. You will find it safest always to be chaste, sincere and dignified in conversation, even with a girl chum. This does not mean that you should not have innocent fun.
The wise girl.—The wise girl will take her mother into her confidence and ask for advice in the choice of her chum. Mamma will always appreciate the opportunity to be to you a chum, a friend, a companion and a mother.