Prenatal development

“ Furthermore, if there is to be notable improvement in the management of cases of childbirth, the appearance of untoward symptoms should not be awaited before consulting a physician; on the contrary, prospective mothers must be taught that they should be under competent medical supervision throughout pregnancy.
At present intelligent women demand some knowledge of the anatomical and physiological changes incident to the development of the embryo and the birth of the child. ”

“ It is scarcely probable that any woman lives through the ten months of pregnancy without seeing, hearing or thinking things that would disfigure a baby if maternal impressions could produce such results, and yet newborn babies are very rarely blemished. Although the ultimate causes of marks and deformities of the fetus are not definitely known, they are probably to be found in faulty development very early in the embryonic life, and, therefore, are not preventable. ”

“ Universal experience, however, teaches us that the likelihood of rearing a premature child is, by a rapidly increasing proportion, the greater for every week that it remains within the uterus. This is precisely what we should expect, for the period of its existence there measures the perfection of its development ”

“ In exchange for the nourishing stream of life-giving fluid by which growth and development take place, the embryo gives off its poisonous excretions which are carried back to the placenta, from which they are absorbed into the veinous circulation of the mother; so, while the mother does, through the process of nutrition, influence growth and development in the embryo, she is wholly unable to produce specific changes and such definite developmental errors as birthmarks and other deformities. ”

“ The value to be placed on the foetus as potential life is directly related to the stage of its development during gestation. The undeveloped foetus starts out as a newly fertilized ovum; the fully developed foetus emerges ultimately as an infant. A developmental progression takes place between these two extremes and it has a direct bearing on the value of the foetus as potential life. Accordingly, the foetus should be viewed in differential and developmental terms. ”

“ Science wrangles over the rival importance of heredity and environment, but we women know what effects prenatal influence works in children. And, knowing this, what a mystery that we do not mold each thought and act in the interest of the children whose up-bringing will be our real life-work! How strange that mothers do not realize that the burden of maternal and domestic duties can be lightened by prenatal care and character molding.
Science has done much for the modern mother. ”

“ But what determines the end of the pregnancy? Is it merely the increasing distension of the uterus by the developing foetus? This could scarcely be the case in the Marsupials in which the foetus when born is quite minute. Nor can we attribute parturition to renewed ovulation, for this occurs in Dasyurus only once a year. All we can suggest at present is that a certain periodic development takes place by heredity in presence of the hormones exuded by the fertilised ovum and the embryo developed from it. ”

“ The popular belief that prenatal influences on the mother affect the offspring physically, producing moles and other birth-marks, and even malformations of a more or less serious character, is said to be entirely unsupported by any trustworthy facts, and it is also rejected by physiologists on theoretical grounds. ”

“ As a variety of the third kind of sterility, sterility due to incapacity for implantation or further development of the ovum, must be classed the cases in which, though conception and implantation of the ovum are known to occur, and the first stages of development of the embryo certainly take place, the woman proves incapable of giving birth to a viable infant. ”

“ The Womb is nothing more than the receptacle in which the impregnated egg is placed, and in which it undergoes all the wonderful changes by which it eventually is developed into a perfect human being. The womb is not therefore absolutely needed in conception, and indeed several cases have been known where the new being was formed without the womb altogether, though not perfectly. Its principal use is in fœtal development, which cannot take place perfectly in any other part of the body. ”

“ Incidents in the life of a prospective mother are in point of fact equally inert so far as their influence upon development is concerned, no matter whether they occur during the earlier or later part of pregnancy. There is never any anatomical means by which maternal impressions could be conveyed to the embryo. Such an influence would have to be exerted through the placenta; and that is impossible. There are no nerves in the placenta to carry impulses from the mother to the child. Even the blood streams of the two beings are kept apart ”

“ At the same time, the viability standard takes account of the undeniable fact that as the fetus evolves into its postnatal form, and as it loses its dependence on the uterine environment, the State's interest in the fetus' potential human life, and in fostering a regard for human life in general, becomes compelling. ”

“ There is no doubt, however, that the mother's environment during pregnancy is in general very important for the perfect development of the intrauterine child. Many more deformed births are reported after times of stress and trial, as, for example, after the sieges of great cities, notably the siege of Paris in 1871, and such scenes of desolation as occurred during the thirty years' war in Germany. ”

“ It is easily understandable that any event which makes such an impression on the mother as to affect her health, might so disturb the normal functioning of her body that her child would be badly nourished, or even poisoned. Such facts undoubtedly form the basis on which the airy fabric of prenatal culture was reared by those who lived before the days of scientific biology. ”

“ CHAPTER VIII MISCARRIAGE Frequency—Causes and Prevention—Habitual Miscarriage—Warning
Symptoms—After-effects—Criminal Abortion—Therapeutic Abortion—
Premature Delivery.
We have learned that forty weeks are required for the full development of the human embryo, but this fact carries no assurance that pregnancy will last so long; in reality, it may end abruptly at any time. If growth is interrupted before the twenty-eighth week (the seventh lunar month) , the infant will be too immature to live. Even when born alive, it will usually perish within a few hours, or a few days at most. ”

“ A new human being is the ultimate result of conception, but the chorion, amnion, placenta and umbilical cord must also be created to serve as aids in building and protecting the developing child during its uterine life. The part played by these accessory structures is so vital, in spite of being temporary, that it will be well for us to look into their origin and functions before considering the fetus itself which they serve. ”

“ After one has traced the development of the human body in the uterus, and even faintly understood its growth and method of nourishment, it is impossible to believe that the mother’s thoughts or experiences could in any way deform or mark her child, or alter its sex. That the mother’s “reaching up,” for example, could slip the cord around the unborn baby’s neck is manifestly absurd, as well as the previously mentioned superstitions about the eight-month baby’s slender chances for survival. ”

“ In all abortions due to an immediate and active exciting cause, whether criminal or resulting from shock or accidental trauma, the ovum is healthy, normal in all its parts, size and development of the embryo corresponding to the period of pregnancy at which the accident occurred; whilst in spontaneous abortions due to accidental causes more or less marked changes exist: the development of the embryo especially is retarded ”

“ Further reductions in other birth defects can be made using knowledge already available. Good prenatal care from the earliest weeks of pregnancy, or, better yet, even before pregnancy, can help protect the pregnant woman and her unborn child from potential factors known to cause these tragic defects. In addition, new information about genetics and the effects of drugs taken by a pregnant woman upon the developing child is being used to prevent these disorders.
Prevention is far better than a cure. ”

“ Since the embryo is constantly moving during this time, it quite evidently has no attachment to the mother and cannot, therefore, derive any great amount 65of nourishment directly from her. The growth and development to this point, then, must be due chiefly to inherent powers within the mass of cells itself. ”

“ After the child is born, the physician cuts the cord, and in due time the after-birth is expelled through the same passage as was the child. The expulsion of the after-birth frees the mother of all the tissue derived from the growth of the ovum, for the intricate mechanism that served to nourish and protect the embryo was almost entirely developed from the ovum itself. It is a remarkable provision of Nature that very little of the mother's tissue is cast off at the end of pregnancy ”

“ The next step is to exhibit its various stages of development, and to show how it is nourished and maintained in its proper position. This is requisite in order to understand the origin of many diseases and accidents which occur during gestation, and also to explain the various signs by which it is determined whether a female is pregnant or not.
FŒTAL DEVELOPMENT.
The development of a perfectly formed human being from the egg in which it originates, is one of the most astonishing phenomena that can come under our observation, and is eminently deserving the study of every rational being. ”

“ The idea of prenatal culture as commonly taught is a delusion; the only method that the mother can employ to control the growth of her unborn child is to live a wholesome, normal life, [1298] physically and mentally, and thus supply her own body and that of the child with perfect material for the building of living cells. ”

“ It is significant also to observe what extreme views many people hold regarding the possibility of affecting a child’s traits and abilities by subjecting him to specific influences during his prenatal life. In any group of one hundred persons chosen at random, probably seventy-five will believe in specific prenatal influence. ”

“ One is the state of neonatal care at a particular point in time. Due to the development of new equipment and improved practices, the viability line has changed over the years. In the 19th century, a fetus may not have been viable until 32 or 33 weeks after conception or even later. [50] When Roe was decided, viability was gauged at roughly 28 weeks. See Roe, 410 U. S., at 160. Today, respondents draw the line at 23 or 24 weeks. Brief of Respondents at 8. ”

“ Physicians and their scientific colleagues have regarded that event with less interest and have tended to focus either upon conception, upon live birth, or upon the interim point at which the fetus becomes "viable," that is, potentially able to live outside the mothers womb, albeit with artificial aid. ”

“ If there is no hemorrhage, or other cause of alarm, there is no more reason for giving assistance to deliver the placenta than if only one child had been present; we ought either to wait for the spontaneous operation of nature, or, at most, give very little assistance, precisely as we would in a case of single birth. ”

“ The experience of ages has firmly established the fact that the fetus is expelled when ready to enter the world, or as we say, when it has become mature. But how does the fetus assert its maturity? There is the kernel of the matter; that is the real problem, a problem for the solution of which, happily, we possess better facilities than have heretofore existed. One solution that has been suggested assumes that the fetus loses ultimately its power to assimilate the nourishment provided through the mother's blood. ”

“ It must be borne in mind that prenatal culture of some sort begins at the time of conception; and that on the mental as well as on the physical state of the mother, the health as well as the disposition of the child will depend to no slight extent. The prospective mother who constantly gives way to her feelings does a wrong to her unborn child. ”

“ The due term of labor is past and as a consequence fetuses grow too large within the uterus, greatly increasing the difficulties of parturition and adding to the risk of both mother and child. It is the custom to announce with pride the birth of twelve- and fifteen-pound babies, but it is doubtful whether nature intended that growth to this extent should take place before birth. ”

“ 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. ”

“ That the embryo probably lives in utero in virtue of its own life-principle, even through the entire period of gestation, (51, 56, and 58,) is rendered probable by many facts related by unimpeached authorities, which go to prove that when the whole intact Ovum has been expelled at an advanced period of gestation, or at the natural termination of that period, the fœtus has continued to live, and the circulation of the blood has not ceased for an instant during a space of time of from nine minutes to a quarter of an hour. ”