REPRODUCTION—PART I.

In teaching children or young persons the process of reproduction one of the cleanest, most natural and beautiful methods of doing this is to tell them the process which goes on in the various forms of life in the flower, fish, frog, bird and to lead up to the highest and most complex of all living creatures—man.

They watch the butterfly and bee carry a load of pollen from the father buttercup to fertilize the seeds within the mother flower. They watch Mr. and Mrs. Frog awaken from their long winter nap, and stirred by the life-giving impulse within them, start for the breeding pond. They watch Father Thrush win his mate and patiently stand guard over her during the tedious hatching days. They are told and see that the flowers depend upon outside forces to bring the pollen from the male to the female to fertilize the seeds before the seeds could grow. They are taught that the mother fish lay her eggs in the water first and that the father fish, unlike the flowers, being able to move about, carries the pollen (which is now a fluid) to the seeds himself. They are told that Father Frog, being a higher creature, fertilized the eggs before they reached the water, and Father Thrush being still higher in the scale fertilized the eggs before they left the mother's body. That the higher the species was, the greater the care required to preserve that species.

In this way the mind is prepared for the information which should follow.

The girl at puberty should be taught this process and something of what goes on within the womb after the ovum has been fertilized. She should know that all organic life is the result of a simple cell; that man is a community of cells, banded together and depending upon each cell to carry on its work, for the benefit of the whole.

Let us first, then, get an idea of a cell and what it is and what it does. A cell is a tiny portion of living matter having in its center a spot or nucleus which represents the point of germination; it is separated from its sister cells by partitions of cell membrane.

A simple cell is formed by the fusion of two germ cells when they meet to exchange nuclear elements. After this fusion they are able to proceed with fission, which means splitting into parts, and it is the subsequent cellular growth of the fused germ-cell that constitutes reproduction.

There are two kinds of reproductive cells, the ova in the female and the spermatozoa in the male.

When the sexual act takes place, there is deposited into the vagina a secretion known as semen. According to Sutkowsky, each deposit or ejaculation contains 50,000,000 of spermatozoa.

About the same time in the act there occurs in the female, spasmodic contractions of the muscles of the uterus which draws in a small amount of the sperm which the male has left there.

The sperm cell of the male under the microscope shows that it contains both head and tail.

The tail enables it to move and advance with a tadpole-like motion toward the ovum.

As in the lower forms of life, the male cell has within it the instinct to chase and capture the female cell. Consequently, it does not depend upon the uterine contractions of the female to enable it to reach the ovum for fertilization. The vagina being a corrugated or wrinkled tube, hides and secretes the sperm cell for days, unless it is removed with water or killed by poisonous injections.

When, however, the sperm comes near the ovum it is drawn to it as to a magnet.

The ovum being carefully protected by nature within the ovaries, leaves its sister cells and travels alone. The sperm cell, however, having more dangerous paths to travel, must provide against the uncertainty of doing its great work by going in numbers, though it takes but one single cell to produce human life.

A number of the male cells go to meet the ovum, but only one enters it. Almost at the moment the head enters the ovum it becomes completely absorbed by the ovum and all trace of it is lost.

This union of the two cells is called fertilization, fecundation, impregnation, or conception. Any of these terms may be used. This union usually takes place in the tube, but the fertilized egg does not remain there; it wanders along and finds its way into the uterus.

Now that the ovum has been fertilized, it readily becomes attached to the soft lining of the uterus which has been specially prepared to receive it. No menstruation occurs. The woman is now pregnant. A new being is created, and marvelous changes will now take place within the tiny cell clinging so weakly to the lining of the uterus. At this time the ovum is so small it can scarcely be seen by the naked eye, but in two weeks it has grown to the size of a pea; in four weeks to the size of a walnut, and in eight weeks to the size of a lemon. At this time it is three inches long and is completely formed, the head being much larger in proportion to the rest of its body. What has happened to the ovum in these few weeks is briefly this: All the changes in the evolution of the animal kingdom, that man had to pass through to arrive at his present shape, the human embryo goes through step by step within the uterus in a very short period. Immediately after fertilization the ovum begins to divide into sections or lobes, into 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc. cells until they are almost countless. Each cell splits in the middle of the nucleus, forming two complete new cells and so on.

The next stage is represented by this mass of cells forming themselves into a shape like a hollow ball. The third stage is the meeting of the two layers of cells, as if the ball had collapsed, and these two layers meet and unite as one, stretch and flatten out like a worm. After this stage things become more complicated; new organs begin to develop, line marks for the backbone and intestinal canal show themselves, as do the bony and muscular structure of the skeleton.

A slight pulsation is observed, showing the development of the heart. The head fold is formed by a gradual bending of the spinal column at the front end of the ovum, which we will now call the embryo. There are also formed at this time, processes which soon become arms and legs, there is a furrow on the face, pits for the eyes; all of which has happened in less than four weeks.

From this time forward development is rapid; the bones, which up to this time have been soft matter, grow harder, and all organs which were only outlined,

now become definitely formed. At the end of the fourth month it has grown to its natural shape. The remaining months it increases in size and gains strength. The uterus becomes enlarged, rises out of the pelvis and occupies the abdominal cavity. It takes forty weeks or 280 days to complete the growth of the human embryo, although the time may be two weeks more or less and yet be normal.

Let us see how the child has been fed all this time. When the ovum is fertilized and up to the eighth week it is fed by delicate branched threads, which form a covering for it. These threads are called “villi”, and dip into the uterine surface for nourishment from the mother to supply the embryo.

About the eighth week these “villi” have grown greatly intertwined into a mass of spongy tissue full of blood vessels called the placenta (afterbirth). This fastens itself to one side of the uterus, takes oxygen as well as nutriment from the mother and sends it through the umbilical cord to the child, the point of attachment being at the navel, the depression left on the belly of the child by the cutting of the umbilical cord at birth. In the same way it takes the waste product from the child to the mother, and she, in turn, throws them out of her system through the kidneys, bowels and skin. The child and placenta are both encased within a membraneous sac, which secretes and serves to hold a watery fluid in which the child swims.

The child is folded together with legs on the thighs and thighs on the belly, arms on the chest and head bent forward over the breast. Toward the end of the term it moves about slightly, often stretches a little, and has periods of rest when it scarcely moves, and again periods of great activity. A mother first feels the child move in the fourth or fifth month. Often the young mother at this time begins to worry over her acts lest something she should do might deform the precious charge she carries. This, as you can readily understand from its early development, is impossible, for by the end of the second month the child has been formed, and no mental impressions of the mother can alter its shape. Just as the nucleus of the male sperm has within it all the contributions which the father of the child can give it, until after it is born, so does the mother give it its physical qualities right at the beginning.

Whatever is to be inherited from the father must be within the substance of the spermatozoon at the time the ovum is fertilized. He has no further pre-natal influence over it.

It is interesting to observe that the children of so-called great men are seldom above the average in intelligence, where, on the other hand, almost all men of great minds have had intelligent mothers.

How great or how little influence a mother has over her child through her thoughts has not been proven, nor has the subject of determining or influencing sex of the unborn child been settled.

At the end of nine months the child's development is complete and it is ready for its journey to the outside world. The process of this journey is called “labor”—a word which will describe the mother's share in it. When this occurs before the embryo is able to live outside the uterus it is known as abortion.

REPRODUCTION—PART II.

In the first part of this essay I said that if the process of labor occurs before the seventh month (which is the earliest time the foetus can live for any length of time outside the womb) it is known as abortion or miscarriage. When labor occurs later than this or within two weeks before term, it is known as premature labor.

The average girl in using the word abortion, has in mind a criminal act, whereby the process of pregnancy is purposely interrupted. She prefers the word miscarriage.

There is also a belief among girls that a miscarriage occurring in the early stages of pregnancy can be brought about without bad results or any serious consequences to her health.

It is a mistake to regard an abortion as of slight importance, for any interruption in the process of pregnancy is always more dangerous than the natural labor at full term. One writer claims there are more women ill in consequence of abortion than from full term childbirth, on account of which there are so many women who are semi-invalids.

There can be no doubt that the often excessive loss of blood leaves the woman in a weak and rundown condition, thereby lessening her powers of resistance to other diseases.

The shock to the woman's system is greater than that produced by natural labor, and consequently leaves her in a hysterical and often critically nervous state for some time after.

The causes of abortion are many. Among them are overexertion, overexcitement, shock, fright, fall, great anger, dancing, fatigue, lifting heavy weights, purgative medicines and excessive sexual intercourse.

The dangers resulting from abortion are blood poison, hemorrhage—even lockjaw has been known to be the result of abortion, also the danger that one miscarriage is likely to follow another, and disables a woman to carry a child to the full term.

If there is the same care and treatment given the woman who aborts as the woman in childbirth, she will naturally be less likely to suffer serious results than if no medical attention were given her.

One of the most common disturbances of pregnancy is nausea, more commonly called “morning sickness,” because it is felt in the morning when the woman first assumes the erect position. As a rule, this lasts only during the early months.

About the latter part of the fourth month, or often not before the fifth month, movements of the foetus are felt. These movements are called “life”, and women are glad of this signal that all is progressing naturally. One writer said a woman had described the first feeling of life as “the trembling movements of a bird within the hand.”

There are often many nervous manifestations accompanying the pregnant woman, such as headache, neuralgia, toothache and as a usual thing, constipation is always present, and should receive attention. The teeth also should receive attention at this time for they decay easily on account of the secretions in the mouth which are increased during pregnancy.

The breasts enlarge in the early months of pregnancy, and there is a fullness and tingling felt often in the fifth week. The nipples become erect and the skin around the nipple becomes dark brown. These are only a few of the disturbances of pregnancy, but enough to show that other organs beside the uterus are tested in strength and how important it is to have a good healthy body. In fact, every tissue and fiber in the woman's body feels the impetus of pregnancy, and all kinds of physical changes occur. Like in June, “Every clod feels a stir of might, an instinct within it that reaches and towers.”—Howell.

One of the common questions asked by young women in early married life is how to tell if they are pregnant.

This is not always easy, but there are a few points on which a diagnosis is based, namely: in a healthy woman (during the reproductive age) the function of menstruation stops, together with the morning sickness, and the enlargement of the breasts with dark color around the nipples. These are early indications that pregnancy exists. I am not going to take the time nor space to explain that all three of the above named can exist in nervous women, even when pregnancy does not exist. It is, as I said before, with the average healthy girl I am dealing, not with the exception. The only certain signs of pregnancy are the hearing of the heart-beats of the child and its movements.

Another question which troubles a young woman is how to count the time when she will be confined. This, too, is difficult to say, for an error of two weeks earlier or later is possible, because the time of conception is seldom definitely known. Experience has given a method of arriving at an approximate date which is used and which answers the purpose fairly well, though it is by no means perfect. Add seven days to the first day of the last menstruation and count nine months forward. For example: Mrs. A. menstruated last, beginning October 5 add seven days; this brings the date to October 12; add nine months, which brings the date of confinement to July 12. It is well to have everything prepared two weeks before this date so that the woman can be as much as possible in the open air during the remaining waiting days.

The dress of the pregnant woman should receive serious attention. In the first place, it should be simple and warm, without bands restricting the circulation of any part of the body, like skirt bands, round garters, corsets and tight shoes. The secret of a comfortable outfit for the expectant mother is to have all clothing hang from the shoulders. Combination underwear can be bought as reasonably as the separate drawers and shirt. There should be no pressure on the womb from above, rather let all support come from below. The corset gets in its harmful work by pressing down the uterus into the pelvis, thus displacing the abdominal organs and crowding them together in such a way as to cause injury to the uterus as well as to the child itself. The muscles of the uterus and abdomen are weakened and from this results that horror of all women: the “high stomach.” Some women, especially those having borne children, prefer to wear in the latter days of pregnancy an abdominal supporter. If it is well fitted to the body it helps to assist the abdominal muscles in carrying the weight and affords great relief. If women would devote to making themselves comfortable during pregnancy as much time as they give on the baby's outfit, they would profit by it. Instead of wearing any old worn-out dress, ill-fitting and out of style, make one “maternity” dress to fit the figure. This can, of course, be let out in size as the figure grows. It can be made of some pretty, inexpensive material and gives such comfort and ease to the mind as well as to the body that the woman who has once had one will never again do without it.

The food also should be simple. In fact, there are few restrictions to be placed on food unless so ordered by the physician. One common mistake of women is that they believe they are eating for two persons, and consequently, must gorge themselves, which, of course, results in indigestion. Physicians advise a small amount of meat once a day. Plenty of water, milk and cereals, fruit, vegetables and especially fruit, which loosens the bowels. Rich pastry or starches fried in fat should not be eaten, because they are hard to digest. There is no reason why the diet should be at all strict unless a woman is under the special care of a physician. She should take a moderate amount of exercise every day, but should not get tired. Walking in the open air in the sunlight is best. Avoid dancing, swimming and all violent exercise; sewing on the sewing machine should be restricted. Fainting in the early months is often caused from bad air in overcrowded and overheated rooms, also from an empty stomach when the woman is too busy to notice nature's call for nourishment.

It is now generally agreed that alcohol taken by the mother during pregnancy, has very bad effects on the offspring.

There is little more to be said here except that a pregnant woman should be mentally and physically active, though not fatigued. And of all things she should keep out of the hearing of old superstitions, which have a sign for every act and keep a young woman constantly worried. She should not be allowed to worry over her approaching labor, and as far as possible be kept cheerful and happy. Another question which concerns every expectant mother, is, if there is any danger in sexual intercourse during pregnancy.

At the end of the period the child and the placenta are expelled from the uterus. The uterus gradually returns to its former size. It requires about six weeks for this to occur and it is very important that there should be no heavy lifting and overwork at this time. As a rule after childbirth, the woman's form becomes matured and more developed. The facial expression takes on a kinder, a maternal look, the whole nervous system is awakened to sympathy, pain or grief bringing tears to the eyes quicker than ever before. Especially is this true for the first few years following.

The important thing is that the care of the pregnant woman should be begun in girlhood. If we are going to be and have mothers, then we should give attention to the development of the organs which make us mothers.