Expectant mother

“ But when we understand, even faintly, the conflicts which are possible in the mental life of the expectant mother—the 153incompatibility of her age-old maternal instinct and the desires born of our culture and civilization, it is not difficult to see that her adaptive capacity may be sorely tested. ”

“ An expectant mother who has had an abortion will have to take even greater precautions, as she is in more danger than is a woman who has not had this experience. It is of prime importance, to begin with, that she have the cause of her previous abortion discovered, and if possible corrected. And since the accident is most likely to be repeated at about the same time, or a little earlier, in each succeeding pregnancy it is a wise precaution for the expectant mother to remain quietly in bed for at least a week before and after the time when an abortion may be feared. ”

“ It is important for the expectant mother to keep herself in as nearly perfect condition as possible, both physically and mentally. Her bodily mechanism will then run smoothly, and the child will get from her blood the nourishment needed for its development. Beyond that there is nothing the mother can do to influence the development of her child. ”

“ Another source of unrest in the mind of the expectant mother, especially during her first pregnancy, is the fear of death during labor, or the development of complications. She is reluctant to speak of these things to her husband, family or friends, lest they laugh at her or regard her as a coward at the prospect of pain. Or she may be unwilling to distress those who love her by admitting her fear.
Fear of death and disease are very common traits and equally common is the hesitancy we all have in acknowledging them. ”

“ Sufficient is known to make it of the utmost importance that, in the interest of her offspring, the expectant mother be not subjected to sudden or violent mechanical force or to any great nervous shock. ”

“ This makes us hope that before long good care during pregnancy, childbirth and young motherhood will be available to every woman in the land. But quite as earnestly do we also hope that every woman in the land who is looking forward to motherhood will seek this care. Certain it is that the expectant mother who does seek care, whether from a doctor in his office or through a prenatal clinic, is approaching her motherhood in the only way that is safe for herself and her baby. ”

“ She becomes an heroic figure, fulfilling her highest duty to society, and demanding just toll. Men bow to this attitude when they flee hysterics and [Pg 9] turn deaf ears to angry complaints. And no woman should disregard the importance of moral support and sympathy on the part of her husband.
To guard her own health and that of the child, the expectant mother must give careful attention to three things: diet, rest, exercise. ”

“ The expectant mother who habitually has not made satisfactory adjustments during her life may be bending under a mental burden that is a little heavier than her slender, unevolved powers can bear. The nurse’s part is to recognize this possibility and realize that while she cannot attempt to correct the difficulty she can be a prop by simply being optimistic and reassuring. ”

“ Happily, the present-day obstetrician, who assumes the care of an expectant mother, does so with confidence and optimism because of the available knowledge upon which he may draw for her benefit. Progress in the various branches of medicine and nursing is steadily pointing the way toward greater and more effective safeguards for the maternity patient and her baby. ”

“ The origin of the baby is exactly coincident with the fusion of the male and female cells. Furthermore, the sex of the child and any inherited traits and characteristics are also established at this decisive moment. No amount of dieting, exercise or mental effort on the part of the expectant mother can alter or influence them in the smallest degree, for the father has made his complete contribution toward the creation of the new being and the mother, also, has made hers, except for nourishment which she provides throughout pregnancy. ”

“ Its tissues have, therefore, to be squeezed and pressed to mould their shape in order to allow its exit through the orifice, and this must be a slow process, and one which almost always entails great pressure and consequent agony to the mother. Dr. Mary Scharlieb says in The Welfare of the Expectant Mother:—
It is, however, scarcely possible that either the public or the profession realizes that one woman dies in child birth for every 250 children born alive. ”

“ To begin with, it is quite plain that the first need of every expectant mother is examination and measurement, early in pregnancy, by a good physician. The information thus obtained helps the doctor to foretell the kind of labor that his patient is likely to have, and by planning for it ahead of time he is often able to save her much harm and suffering. ”

“ Facts and reason then, alike demonstrate the reality of the influence, and much practical advantage would result to both parent and child, were the conditions and extent of its operations better understood.
6. Pregnant women should not be exposed to causes likely to distress or otherwise strongly impress their minds. A consistent life with worthy objects constantly kept in mind should be the aim and purpose of every expectant mother. ”

“ If the nurse will so far put herself in the patient’s place that she is glad, sincerely glad, that the baby is coming, this attitude will communicate itself to the expectant mother. Happiness and enthusiasm are very infectious. ”

“ The disturbance of uterine existence between conception and birth is that which has engaged most attention, and the fact that such disturbances can take place requires that the expectant mother should be protected from anything that can so act on her own organism as to prevent the due operation of the law of heredity. ”

“ The mother, when funds are low, goes without much food, pleading headache, etc., so as to try and blind her husband. I think an expectant mother should rest at least half an hour every day, and especially towards the last should have no heavy work to do, such as washing and ironing. ”

“ One factor which keeps some expectant mothers from seeking medical care is the well-meaning but dangerous counsel so freely offered by older women who claim fitness to advise by virtue of having had several children of their own. Their lack of success, as evidenced by miscarriages, stillbirths, children dying in early infancy, as well as injuries and disabilities of their own, is usually overlooked as they press their superstitions and remedies upon the inexperienced and bewildered younger woman. ”

“ She knows quite well that there are no more holes because she looks for them, than there are if she does not, and that failure to look for them will not keep the holes from being there nor from growing larger. No more does the expectant mother develop a complication 6because she is examined, nor does an existing condition cease to exist because she is not examined; and yet some women still take just that illogical attitude toward examinations and supervision during pregnancy. ”

“ Each patient’s general condition must be considered; her tendency to nausea; the length of the journey and the ease with which it may be made, and whether or not she has ever had, or been threatened with an abortion. In general, traveling is less hazardous for the expectant mother to-day than it was formerly, to just the extent that it causes less strain, discomfort and fatigue. But as a rule it is considered wise for her to avoid traveling during the first sixteen and the last four weeks of pregnancy, and at the times when menstruation would ordinarily occur. ”

“ There is, too, the immeasurably important question of the expectant mother’s personal hygiene—the general scheme of her living in such a way as to promote her own and her baby’s welfare—concerning which the average young woman is almost wholly ignorant. ”

“ Therefore the chance that ordinary normal people carry a dangerous heredity is reduced, but the responsibility of parents to see that their children are properly born is increased. In the second place, it becomes more evident than ever that fitness for marriage implies intelligent willingness and persistence in acting upon the discoveries of science in whatever way may be best for the unborn child. We have long insisted upon the right environment for the expectant mother during pregnancy. ”

“ One mother died for every 500 babies born. 2. One out of every 51 babies born, died under one month of age. 3. One out of every 42 babies was born dead. The Association does not usurp nor supplant, but endeavors to give impulse to public and private agencies alike in affording the best possible supervision and care for expectant and parturient mothers and their babies. ”

“ Two months before baby is to arrive, the expectant mother should pay particular attention to the conservation of her strength. The woman who is compelled to leave her home for the factory, the laundry, the office, or other place of employment, should stop work during these last two or three months. ”

“ However, the amount and kind of work which the expectant mother may comfortably and safely do, are so related to what she has been accustomed to, that it is not possible to do more than describe what has proved of benefit for the average woman. ”

“ It is because so many women fail to appreciate this that abortions and premature births are often followed by ill health and invalidism. Under proper care, an abortion 80or premature labor is not, of itself, any more serious for a woman than a normal delivery.
Bleeding from the vagina, or a sudden increase in the size of the abdomen with perspiration and a sudden feeling of faintness, may be the beginning of severe bleeding, or hemorrhage, from any one of a number of causes, and in such a case the expectant mother should notify her doctor, go to bed at once and keep quiet until he arrives. ”

“ It is quite true that the question of expectant motherhood has nothing to do with heredity in the proper sense of that term. We are dealing now with "nurture," not with "nature," but we are dealing with a department of nurture which can only be understood when we realize that human beings begin their lives nine months or so before they are born, and that the first stage of their nurture is coincident with what we call expectant motherhood, whilst the second stage of their nurture, normally and properly, ought to be coincident with what we may call nursing motherhood. ”

“ Still another type, and one which presents a much simpler situation, is the expectant or young mother who is scarcely suffering from a mental strain, but has a little let-down in her customary poise and self-control, such as we so often see in convalescents and chronic invalids. ”

“ When an expectant mother finds it difficult or nearly impossible to sit or lie down for any length of time, she may secure great relief in a few moments by lying flat on the bed with her legs extended straight into the air, at right angles to her body, resting against the wall or head board, as shown in Fig. ”

“ After the provision of health visitors the next step should be to arrange in populous centres for a Maternity Centre at which medical advice and treatment may be provided for mothers, including expectant mothers, and for children, whether ailing or not. ”

“ She is expectant and ready for her Visitors, and when Mary gives her wondrous salutation: "The Lord is with you," filled with the Holy Ghost she answers: "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb"; and then she thinks of the great honour which God is showing to her home by permitting Mary with her Child to visit it. ”

“ Because of this reasoning, or lack of it, it has been a fairly general custom for the woman who expected a baby to seek her doctor’s aid only when she went into labor, or shortly beforehand, and to give no thought to the care of her baby until he was born. All too often the mother has died, because of this tardy care, been injured or become an invalid, while equally sad things have happened to the baby—and needlessly so. ”

“ It will involve the conduct of the female even before her marriage, as well as during her pregnancy—the various contingencies which effect her in health as well as in disease. Very much depends on her to insure for her child a vigorous constitution, or to prevent a feeble frame in the child. She should not enter into the holy state of marriage with heedless haste; if she does, she will discharge its duties with inexcusable neglect. To constitute a mother, in the best sense of the term, requires a patient endurance of fatigue, and anxious solicitude, which will sorely tax the mother’s strength. ”

“ On the other hand, when maternity is accepted as a privilege, and love instead of bitterness reigns in the prospective mother’s heart, the babe is born tranquil, normal, healthy. Returning to the phrase, efficiency in motherhood, it is good business to bear normal children.
In this day, the woman who frets, rebels and weeps during pregnancy commands little sympathy and practical help from her husband and family. ”

“ And since I have come to years of understanding, and often when I have attended women in childbirth, I have thought it was not possible for me to be thankful enough to that good old man—and who is yet living—for attending my mother at my birth, young and inexperienced as she was ”

“ There is no position in which maternal love shines more brightly than when the infant she has nourished at her breast is returned upon her hands, a man or woman, perhaps in middle age, but weak, ill, helpless, and requiring a mother’s care. ”