Florence Elizabeth Barrett

“ Where the whole being enters into the union of the sexes the complete joy of marriage is realised, the characteristic of which is that it does not fade, but becomes ever deeper and more fully realised, a sure indication that the highest pleasure of sex union is only attained when it consummates a love which involves mutual sympathy and consideration. Physical union alone produces dissatisfaction the more quickly in proportion as it is physical only ”

“ Even if a young couple decide that they cannot afford to bring up more than four children, they have first to prove that four children will be given them—in many cases they will not have so many, and as years go by the fertility of the mother becomes progressively less, so that if child-bearing is postponed till after thirty, in a certain number of families no children are born. There are many men and women who bitterly regret having let the years go by in which children might have been born to them, and it is only fair that young couples of to-day should fully understand this risk. ”

“ It may be contended that men and women with such an inheritance should not marry, but that is a matter for the decision of the individuals concerned. It not infrequently happens that marriage has taken place before they know of the inherited tendency. In such cases clearly the advice of the family doctor should be given as to the best course to pursue in order to avoid conception.
The case of the overworked and burdened mother with a large and increasing family is nearly allied to that of a woman with disease, though in her case the causes for ill-health are more complicated. ”

“ For in a very short time there will not be enough leaders of real capacity to occupy positions of initiative and responsibility in the various activities of the country at home and abroad, nor will there be an adequate supply of good practical work: a lowered standard of efficiency must result. From a national point of view, therefore, we regard the propaganda in favour of conception control to be a real and increasing danger. ”

“ During the last few years the idea of the need for conception control has again become prominent, partly as a revolt against the bondage of women in child-bearing, partly accentuated by the difficulties and uncertainties of an adequate livelihood, and the desire to have a few children well educated and cared for rather than many who shift more or less for themselves. ”

“ We have men and women of brilliant attainments, and of all grades of intelligence ranging downwards to the mentally defective. There is no doubt that all grades of intelligence can be improved by education, but there appears to be a limit to the capacity of development of each individual. ”

“ The diminishing fertility of the more capable classes is a national peril.
To counteract this tendency every encouragement should be given to the intelligent and efficient classes of the community to bear healthy children.
The study of problems which give rise periodically to a propaganda in favour of the practice of conception control reveal the fact that excessive child-bearing is found in those classes who suffer the greatest privation, and in whom large families are a real hardship, while many couples among the well-to-do are childless though greatly desiring children. ”

“ This is well known to all true lovers who have for varied reasons exercised some voluntary self-control in regard to the physical side of sex in marriage, either in deference of the one to the desire of the other, or to avoid too frequent child-bearing, or in special seasons such as Lent.
On the other hand it has been observed by most people that many marriages which seem to promise well, quickly lose even to the eye of the outsider all the romance of the days of courtship. Is not too frequent physical indulgence sometimes the cause? ”

“ The use of contraceptives does not encourage self-control, yet the cultivation of self-control is a far higher gain to the individual and the nation than any apparent advantages obtained by its abandonment. ”

“ This excessive child-bearing under present conditions still further lowers the standard of life and the health of the mother, hence a vicious circle is set up, the only escape from which will come by such consideration of the laws of health relating to work, housing, food and recreation as shall ensure the maximum of vitality to the workers. This is the true method of conception control.
There comes a point in the development of nervous energy which is productive of sterility. It is true that principles based on so many varying factors will necessarily appear to fail in individual cases. ”

“ The answer to that is immediately in the negative, for women in comfortable circumstances may have large families, with no sign of weariness and dejection. No, the causes of ill-health and debility are diverse, and to pretend to solve the question by conception control is a mockery, for it salves the conscience of the community without really dealing with the question of the disabilities of the working woman, or the true cause of her excessive fertility. ”

“ Now the teaching and advocacy of methods of conception control is most easily assimilated and practised by the intelligent classes; indeed, we may say with certainty that such methods can only be used effectively by the intelligent members of the community, such as leisured, professional and mercantile classes, skilled artisans and better class workers, whereas the lowest type of casual labourers whose home conditions render the use of preventive methods difficult or impossible, and the mentally deficient and criminal classes, are unaffected by such teaching. ”

“ By no means unimportant is the influence that wide diffusion of the knowledge of how to prevent conception would have in causing more irregular unions and greater promiscuity in sex relations. The effect of this would not only loosen, rather than strengthen, the marriage tie, but would inevitably lead to an extension of venereal disease. Many people seem to think that contraceptives prevent venereal disease at the same time that they prevent conception. But this is not so. The use of methods of prevention by women is no protection to them from infection. ”

“ Moreover, even though an early family involve real hardship for awhile, it has the great advantage that parents and children later on are still young together, and that means far more to the child in understanding friendship and helpfulness during the most critical period of life than extra comforts or pleasures would have meant to the parents, and if young parents realised this, would they not put the child first? ”

“ Environment with its influence on the nervous energy of the individual will be modified by the inherited tendency of that individual towards fertility or the reverse. We find, therefore, isolated cases of large families among the well-to-do and small families among those whose vitality is below the normal, but if the general principle is true we should expect to find a larger number of sterile marriages among the well-to-do than among those whose lives are more full of hardship, and this undoubtedly is the case. ”

“ The tragedy of it all is that even to attain the end in view—moderation in the size of families—such methods are to a large extent unnecessary. Not to every young married couple does a child arrive at the end of a year. Some, using no artificial checks, wait two or three years before the first baby comes. Even if it does come, however, at the end of a year, there are many advantages to counterbalance the small means and perhaps hard living of the young pair. For when people are young they can put up with small means, because they are strong enough to work hard and help each other ”

“ But conception can also be controlled by avoidance of those parts of the monthly cycle in which conception most commonly takes place. That in the great majority of women there is a time in the monthly cycle when no conception occurs has been noted for a long time. The rough-and-ready method of reckoning the date of birth in relations to the last menstrual period is an example of the assumption that conception will probably have taken place a week later, and the frequency with which such reckoning is justified shows that it is not altogether unfounded. ”

“ But even at first sight it is obvious that whatever knowledge may be available, and whatever methods may be devised, it would not be easy to convey this knowledge rightly to the individual it is hoped to benefit without doing harm to others. Further thought shows that the national problems involved are so important and far reaching in effects that they might well arrest the attention of the most careless advocate of indiscriminate conception control. ”

“ The so-called advantages of a few years between one child and the next so that the parents may give fuller care and attention to each, are far outweighed from the child's point of view by the advantages of playmates in the nursery of nearly its own age, who are a source of education in the give and take of life such as no adult can supply. ”

“ If parents wish to have only three or four children, it is to the advantage of the mother as well as of the children, to have the little family early in life—they are then all in the nursery together, and later all at school, and her life work is in this way so arranged that she may give most service to the world in addition to carrying on the race.
Our conclusion is that for mothers and children it is very desirable that no contraceptives should be used in the early years of married life. ”

“ The propagandists of conception control appear to take it for granted that after preventive measures in early youth, children may be conceived at will whenever they are desired; and, moreover, it is assumed that apart from such precautions every woman will conceive annually and will continue to do so until 10-12 children have been born. ”

“ Ill-health in working-class mothers often has its origin in inherited weakness and lack of care in childhood. It is further accentuated by overwork, with no labour-saving devices; lack of suitable food; too few, if any, hours of recreation, and hence very little out-door exercise. Badly ventilated homes deprive the mother of necessary supplies of oxygen, and insufficient sleep is often the last straw which breaks down the patient burden bearer. ”

“ The provision of education for all, with facilities for children of every class to pass on to higher grades of work, is essential if the latent powers in all, whatever they may be, are to be developed to the utmost. ”

“ Such control of conception, though natural, does not make it any more desirable to space the births unduly so that the children are brought up in separate units instead of in a happy family group in which they can share games and interests—but it does avoid the risks which are associated with artificial methods of conception control. ”

“ There are, however, no sharply defined classes of intelligence; just as the mentally defective are in many grades, so ordinary men and women vary from low or average intelligence up to outstanding cases of genius or capacity.
By the newer methods of mental testing it has been shewn that children of various classes of the community, as well as men and women of different races, can be grouped according to their intellectual capacity, and that no educational facilities will develop that capacity beyond a certain point. ”

“ In man this aspect of the relation is all important. The higher side of sex, or what we may call the psychical secondary sex characters, seem to extend through the whole range of mental and spiritual activities. Because of this there is freshness of contact in mental and spiritual intercourse between men and women which differs somewhat from that between individuals of the same sex, and very much of the joy of life springs from the impact of these differing yet completing selves the one upon the other. ”