Part 21
While a woman is nursing she should eat plenty of nourishing food--milk, oatmeal, cracked wheat, and good juicy, fresh meat, boiled, roasted, or broiled, but not fried. Between each meal, before going to bed, and once during the night, she should take a cup of cocoa, gruel made with milk, good beef tea, mutton broth, or any warm, nutritive drink. Tea and coffee are to be avoided. It is important to keep the digestion in order and the bowels should be carefully regulated as a means to this end. If necessary, any of the laxative mineral waters can be used for this purpose, or a teaspoonful of compound licorice powder taken at night. Powerful cathartic medicines should be avoided because of their effect upon the baby. The child should be weaned at nine months old, unless this time comes in very hot weather, or the infant is so delicate that a change of food would be injurious. If the mother is not strong her nurseling will sometimes thrive better upon artificial food than on its natural nourishment. By gradually lengthening the interval between the nursing and feeding the child, when it is hungry, the weaning can be accomplished without much trouble.
A young mother should wear warm underclothing, thick stockings and a flannel jacket over her night dress, unless she is in the habit of wearing an under vest. If the body is not protected by warm clothing there is an undue demand upon the nervous energy to keep up the vital heat, and nerve force is wasted by the attempt to compel the system to do what ought to be done for it by outside means.
[Illustration]
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How to Have Beautiful Children.
[Illustration]
1. PARENTAL INFLUENCE.--The art of having handsome children has been a question that has interested the people of all ages and of all nationalities. There is no longer a question as to the influence that parents may and do exert upon their offspring, and it is shown in other parts of this book that beauty depends largely on the condition of health at the time of conception. It is therefore of no little moment that parents should guard carefully their own health as well as that of their children, that they may develop a vigorous constitution. There cannot be beauty without good health.
2. MARRYING TOO EARLY.--We know that marriage at too early an age, or too late in life, is apt to produce imperfectly {289} developed children, both mentally and physically. The causes are self-evident: A couple marrying too young, they lack maturity and consequently will impart weakness to their offspring; while on the other hand persons marrying late in life fail to find that normal condition which is conducive to the health and vigor of offspring.
3. CROSSING OF TEMPERAMENTS AND NATIONALITIES.--The crossing of temperaments and nationalities beautifies offspring. If young persons of different nationalities marry, their children under proper hygienic laws are generally handsome and healthy. For instance, an American and German or an Irish and German uniting in marriage, produces better looking children than those marrying in the same nationality. Persons of different temperaments uniting in marriage, always produces a good effect upon offspring.
4. THE PROPER TIME.--To obtain the best results, conception should take place only when both parties are in the best physical condition. If either parent is in any way indisposed at the time of conception the results will be seen in the health of the child. Many children brought in the world with diseases or other infirmities stamped upon their feeble frames show the indiscretion and ignorance of parents.
5. DURING PREGNANCY.--During pregnancy the mother should take time for self improvement and cultivate an interest for admiring beautiful pictures or engravings which represent cheerful and beautiful figures. Secure a few good books illustrating art, with some fine representations of statues and other attractive pictures. The purchase of several illustrated art journals might answer the purpose.
6. WHAT TO AVOID.--Pregnant mothers should avoid thinking of ugly people, or those marked by any deformity or disease; avoid injury, fright and disease of any kind. Also avoid ungraceful position and awkward attitude, but cultivate grace and beauty in herself. Avoid difficulty with neighbors or other trouble.
7. GOOD CARE.--She should keep herself in good physical condition, and the system well nourished, as a want of food always injures the child.
8. THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE MIND.--The mother should read suitable articles in newspapers or good books, keep her mind occupied. If she cultivates a desire for intellectual improvement, the same desire will be more or less manifested in the growth and development of the child. {290}
9. LIKE PRODUCES LIKE, everywhere and always--in general forms and in
## particular features--in mental qualities and in bodily conditions--in
tendencies of thought and in habits of action. Let this grand truth be deeply impressed upon the hearts of all who desire or expect to become parents.
10. HEREDITY.--Male children generally inherit the peculiar traits and diseases of the mother and female children those of the father.
11. ADVICE.--"Therefore it is urged that during the period of utero-gestation, especial pains should be taken to render the life of the female as harmonious as possible, that her surroundings should all be of a nature calculated to inspire the mind with thoughts of physical and mental beauties and perfections, and that she should be guarded against all influences, of whatever character, having a deteriorating tendency."
[Illustration]
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Education of the Child in the Womb.
"A lady once interviewed a prominent college president and asked him when the education of a child should begin. 'Twenty-five years before it is born,' was the prompt reply."
No better answer was ever given to that question. Every mother may well consider it.
[Illustration: THE BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLY.]
1. THE UNBORN CHILD AFFECTED BY THE THOUGHTS AND THE SURROUNDINGS OF THE MOTHER.--That the child is affected in the womb of the mother, through the influences apparently connected with objects by which she is surrounded, appears to have been well known in ancient days, as well as at the present time.
2. EVIDENCES.--Many evidences are found in ancient history, especially among the refined nations, showing that certain expedients were resorted to by which their females, during the period of utero-gestation, were surrounded by the superior refinements of the age, with the hope of thus making upon them impressions which should have the effect of communicating certain desired qualities to the offspring. For this reason apartments were adorned with statuary and paintings, and special pains were taken not only to convey favorable impressions, but also to guard against unfavorable ones being made, upon the mind of the pregnant woman.
3. HANKERING AFTER GIN.--A certain mother while pregnant, longed for gin, which could not be gotten; and her child cried incessantly for six weeks till gin was given it, which it eagerly clutched and drank with ravenous greediness, stopped crying, and became healthy.
4. BEGIN TO EDUCATE CHILDREN AT CONCEPTION, and continue during their entire carriage. Yet maternal study, of little account before the sixth, after it, is most promotive of talents; which, next to goodness are the father's joy and the mother's pride. What pains are taken after they are born, to render them prodigies of learning, by the best of schools and teachers from their third year; whereas their mother's study, three months before their birth, would improve their intellects infinitely more.
5. MOTHERS, DOES GOD THUS PUT the endowment of your darlings into your moulding power? Then tremble in view of its necessary responsibilities, and learn how to wield them for their and your temporal and eternal happiness. {293}
6. QUALITIES OF THE MIND.--The qualities of the mind are perhaps as much liable to hereditary transmission as bodily configuration.
[Illustration]
Memory, intelligence, judgment, imagination, passions, diseases, and what is usually called genius, are often very markedly traced in the offspring.--I have known mental impressions forcibly impressed upon the offspring at the time of conception, as concomitant of some peculiar eccentricity, idiosyncracy, morbidness, waywardness, irritability, or proclivity of either one or both parents.
7. THE PLASTIC BRAIN.--The plastic brain of the foetus is prompt to receive all impressions. It retains them, and they become the characteristics of the child and the man. Low spirits, violent passions, irritability, frivolity, in the pregnant woman, leave indelible marks on the unborn child.
8. FORMATION OF CHARACTER.--I believe that pre-natal influences may do as much in the formation of character as all the education that can come after, and that mothers may, in a measure, "will," what that influence shall be, and that, as knowledge on the subject increases, it will be more and more under their control. In that, as in everything else, things that would be possible with one mother would not be with another, and measures that would be successful with one would produce opposite results from the other.
9. A HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATION.--A woman rode side by side with her soldier husband, and witnessed the drilling of troops for battle. The scene inspired her with a deep longing to see a battle and share in the excitements of the {294} conquerors. This was but a few months before her boy was born, and his name was Napoleon.
10. A MUSICIAN.--The following was reported by Dr. F. W. Moffatt, in the mother's own language: "When I was first pregnant, I wished my offspring to be a musician, so, during the period of that pregnancy, settled my whole mind on music, and attended every musical entertainment I possibly could. I had my husband, who has a violin, to play for me by the hour. When the child was born, it was a girl, which grew and prospered, and finally became an expert musician."
11. MURDEROUS INTENT.--The mother of a young man, who was hung not long ago, was heard to say: "I tried to get rid of him before he was born; and, oh, how I wish now that I had succeeded!" She added that it was the only time she had attempted anything of the sort; but, because of home troubles, she became desperate, and resolved that her burdens should not be made any greater. Does it not seem probable that the murderous intent, even though of short duration, was communicated to the mind of the child, and resulted in the crime for which he was hung?
12. THE ASSASSIN OF GARFIELD.--Guiteau's father was a man of integrity and considerable intellectual ability. His children were born in quick succession, and the mother was obliged to work very hard. Before this child was born, she resorted to every means, though unsuccessful, to produce abortion. The world knows the result. Guiteau's whole life was full of contradictions. There was little self-controlling power in him; no common sense, and not a vestige of remorse or shame. In his wild imagination, he believed himself capable of doing the greatest work, and of filling the loftiest station in life. Who will dare question that this mother's effort to destroy him while in embryo was the main cause in bringing him to the level of the brutes?
13. CAUTION.--Any attempt, on the part of the mother, to destroy her child before birth, is liable, if unsuccessful, to produce murderous tendencies. Even harboring murderous thoughts, whether toward her own child or not, might be followed by similar results.
"The great King of kings Hath in the table of His law commanded That thou shalt do no murder. Wilt thou, then, Spurn at His edict, and fulfill a man's? Take heed, for He holds vengeance in His hand To hurl upon their heads that break his law."--RICHARD III., _Act 1._
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How to Calculate the Time of Expected Labor.
[Illustration: The Embryo In Sixty Days.]
1. The table on the opposite page has been very accurately compiled, and will be very helpful to those who desire the exact time.
2. The duration of pregnancy is from 278 to 280 days, or nearly forty weeks. The count should be made from the beginning of the last menstruation, and add eight days on account of the possibility of it occurring within that period The heavier the child the longer is the duration; the younger the woman the longer time it often requires. The duration is longer in married than in unmarried women; the duration is liable to be longer if the child is a female.
3. MOVEMENT.--The first movement is generally felt on the 135th day after impregnation.
4. GROWTH OF THE EMBRYO.--About the twentieth day the embryo resembles the appearance of an ant or lettuce seed; the 30th day the embryo is as large as a common horse fly; the 40th day the form resembles that of a person; in sixty days the limbs begin to form, and in four months the embryo takes the name of foetus.
5. Children born after seven or eight months can survive and develop to maturity.
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DURATION OF PREGNANCY.
DIRECTIONS.--Find in the upper horizontal line the date on which the last menstruation ceased; the figure beneath gives the date of expected confinement (280 days).
________________________________________________________________ |Jan. | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | |Oct. | 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 | | | | |Feb. | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | |Nov. | 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 | | | | |Mar. | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | |Dec. | 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 | | | | |Apr. | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | |Jan. | 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 | | | | |May | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | |Feb. | 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 | | | | |June | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | |Mar. | 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 | | | | |July | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | |Apr. | 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 | | | | |Aug. | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | |May | 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 21 21 22 23 24 25 26 | | | | |Sept.| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | |June | 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 21 21 22 23 24 25 26 | | | | |Oct. | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | |July | 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 | | | | |Nov. | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | |Aug. | 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 | | | | |Dec. | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | |Sep. | 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 | ________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________ Jan. | 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 | | Oct. | 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 |Nov. | | | | Feb. | 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 | | Nov. | 27 28 29 30 1 2 3 4 5 |Dec. | | | | Mar. | 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 19 30 31 | | Dec. | 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 |Jan. | | | | Apr. | 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 | | Jan. | 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 |Feb. | | | | May | 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 | | Feb. | 24 25 26 27 28 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 |Mar. | | | | June | 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 | | Mar. | 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 |Apr. | | | | July | 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 | | Apr. | 26 27 28 29 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 |May | | | | Aug. | 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 | | May | 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 |June | | | | Sept.| 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 | | June | 27 28 29 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 |July | | | | Oct. | 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 | | July | 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 |Aug. | | | | Nov. | 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 | | Aug. | 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 |Sep. | | | | Dec. | 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 23 29 30 31 | | Sep. | 26 27 28 29 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 |Oct. | _________________________________________________|
[Illustration: _"The House We Live In" for nine months: showing the ample room provided by Nature when uncontracted by inherited inferiority of form or artificial dressing._]
[Illustration: _A Contracted Pelvis. Deformity and Insufficient Space._]
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19. THIS IS WHAT DR. STOCKHAM says: "If women had _common sense_, instead of _fashion sense_, the corset would not exist. There are not words in the English language to express my convictions upon this subject. The corset more than any other one thing is responsible for woman's being the victim of disease and doctors....
"What is the effect upon the child? One-half of the children born in this country die before they are five years of age. Who can tell how much this state of things is due to the enervation of maternal life forces by the one instrument of torture?
"I am a temperance woman. No one can realize more than I the devastation and ruin alcohol in its many tempting forms has brought to the human family. Still I solemnly believe that in weakness and deterioration of health, the corset has more to answer for than intoxicating drinks." When asked how far advanced a woman should be in pregnancy before she laid aside her corset, Dr. Stockham said with emphasis: "_The corset should not be worn for two hundred years before pregnancy takes place._ Ladies, it will take that time at least to overcome the ill-effect of tight garments which you think so essential."
20. PAINLESS PREGNANCY AND CHILD-BIRTH.--"Some excellent popular volumes," says Dr. Haff, "have been largely devoted to directions how to secure a comfortable period of pregnancy and painless delivery. After much conning of these worthy efforts to impress a little common sense upon the sisterhood, we are convinced that all may be summed up under the simple heads of: (1) An unconfined and lightly burdened waist; (2) Moderate but persistent outdoor exercise, of which walking is the best form; (3) A plain, unstimulating, chiefly fruit and vegetable diet; (4) Little or no intercourse during the time.
"These are hygienic rules of benefit under any ordinary conditions; yet they are violated by almost every pregnant lady. If they are followed, biliousness, indigestion, constipation, swollen limbs, morning sickness and nausea--all will absent themselves or be much lessened. In pregnancy, more than at any other time, corsets are injurious. The waist and abdomen must be allowed to expand freely with the growth of the child. The great process of _evolution_ must have room."
21. IN ADDITION, we can do no better than quote the following recapitulation by Dr. Stockham in her famous {298} Tokology: "To give a woman the greatest immunity from suffering during pregnancy, prepare her for a safe and comparatively easy delivery, and insure a speedy recovery, all hygienic conditions must be observed.
"The dress must give:
"1. Freedom of movement;
"2. No pressure upon any part of the body;
"3. No more weight than is essential for warmth, and both weight and warmth evenly distributed.
"These requirements necessitate looseness, lightness and warmth, which can be obtained from the union underclothes, a princess skirt and dress, with a shoe that allows full development and use of the foot. While decoration and elegance are desirable, they should not sacrifice comfort and convenience.
22. "LET THE DIET BE LIGHT, plain and nutritious. Avoid fats and sweets, relying mainly upon fruits and grain that contain little of the mineral salts. By this diet bilious and inflammatory conditions are overcome, the development of bone in the foetus lessened, and muscles necessary in labor nourished and strengthened.
23. "EXERCISE should be sufficient and of such a character as will bring into action gently every muscle of the body; but must particularly develop the muscles of the trunk, abdomen and groin, that are specially called into
## action in labor. Exercise, taken faithfully and systematically, more than
any other means assists assimilative processes and stimulates the organs of excretion to healthy action.
24. "BATHING MUST BE FREQUENT and regular. Unless in special conditions the best results are obtained from tepid or cold bathing, which invigorates the system and overcomes nervousness. The sitz-bath is the best therapeutic and hygienic measure within the reach of the pregnant woman.
"Therefore, to establish conditions which will overcome many previous infractions of law, _dress_ naturally and physiologically; _live_ much of the time _out of doors_; have _abundance_ of _fresh air_ in the house; let _exercise_ be _sufficient_ and _systematic_; pursue a _diet of fruit_, rice and vegetables; _regular rest_ must be faithfully taken; _abstain_ from the sexual relation. To those who will commit themselves to this course of life, patiently and persistently carrying it out through the period of gestation, the possibilities of attaining a healthy, natural, painless parturition will be remarkably increased. {299}