Stillbirth

“ From the moment of conception, during the months of gestation, at the time of childbirth and after, changes of great interest take place in the germ of human life and in the body of the mother. Her body is marvelously fitted for the reception and development of the ovum, the embryo and the fetus through the various stages of fertilization, germination, development, maturity, to the time of the eventual exit of the child into the outer world to begin its own independent life. ”

“ I’m a physician, practicing obstetrician and gynecologist, and I think I’ve had a passing experience in matters of abortion. Now, when I was a medical student, in 1949, we had no such science as fetology. We were taught that the unborn child—the fetus—was something in the uterus, but it was really an article of faith as to whether or not it was a human being, and whether or not that human being had any unique, personal qualities. ”

“ The Vagaries of Pregnancy.—Certain foolish, old-fashioned ideas, have crept into the minds of impressionable people regarding pregnancy, which are aptly termed vagaries. It is believed by some that if the pregnant woman is the victim of fright, or is badly scared, or witnesses a terrifying or tragic sight, her child will be, in some way, affected by it. If the incident is not of sufficient gravity to cause an abortion or a miscarriage it will not, in any way mark, or affect the shape of the child in the womb. ”

“ What are you by yourself, do you think, and what The mere fruit of your womb? What is the fruit of your womb then, you mother, you queen, When it falls to the ground? Is it more than the apples of Sodom you scorn so, the men Who abound? Bring forth the sons of your womb then, and put them Into the fire Of Sodom that covers the earth; bring them forth From the womb of your precious desire. You woman most holy, you mother, you being beyond Question or diminution, Add yourself up, and your seed, to the nought Of your last solution. ”

“ The so-called “Twilight Sleep,” a modern development, by which the pangs of childbirth are obviated by the administration of drugs or by hypnotic suggestion, has its opponents and defenders. The advantage of a painless childbirth, upon which the mother can look back as on a dream, is evident. ”

“ It lies in the choice of every expectant mother to journey through the months of pregnancy with dissatisfaction and resentment or with joy and serenity. "The child will be born and laid in your arms to be fed, cared for, and reared, whether you weep or smile through the months of waiting." ”

“ Perhaps the root of the difficulty lies in the fact that childbirth, as well as the attendant suffering and death, are so familiar that they are regarded as being normal incidents in the ordinary course of affairs.
One of the most dramatic of all human events, the birth of a new being, is accepted casually, almost without concern, because it is so frequent—so commonplace. ”

“ For now a changed body and soul shall separate her forever from those who were one in nature with her; and with that superior happiness destined to be hers there shall be the pains and perils of childbirth, with new griefs and cares unknown to those of humbler condition. ”

“ The apprehensions of dangers which associate themselves in the minds of many with childbirth are not often realized. If the parts are not diseased, and the mother is in good health, and the laws of the unfolding life have been carefully observed, there is little peril, although, generally, considerable pain. ”

“ In no department of life is the specialisation of function among the numina more conspicuous than in connection with birth and childhood. Apart from the general protection of Iuno Lucina, the prominent divinity of childbirth, we can count in the records that have come down to us some twenty subordinate spirits, who from the moment of conception to the moment of birth watched, each in its own [45] particular sphere, over the mother and the unborn child. ”

“ It is, nevertheless, worth while to note this tendency (see the analysis of Kleiner Hans, p. 5) .
The childbirth occurred early in the morning in the presence of a physician and a midwife. When all remnants of the birth, including some blood traces, were cleaned up, the father entered the room where the little one slept. She awoke as he entered. He imparted to her the news of the advent of a little brother which she took with surprise and strained facial expression. The father took her in his arms and carried her into the confinement chamber. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The imagination, it is supposed, has the power, not only of causing the creation of a new part, but also of destroying one or more of the members of the body. Now, suppose a leg, an arm, or a toe, to be cast off, must it not be expelled from the womb? And who has ever detected 212such an occurrence? Besides, too, is it to be supposed that nature would arrest the flow of blood after the part has been separated from the body of the fetus? ”

“ After the placenta and the sacs which enclosed the fetus, which together constitute what is known as "the afterbirth," have passed away, the recuperating and renewing powers with which God has so wonderfully endowed the body of the mother beyond that of the father become active. ”

“ In the first, Prenatal Sleep, is the crouched form of a woman, while successively come the Awakening, the Ecstatic Joy of Being - or it may be the Realization of Living; the Kiss of Life, with the human pair offering up their children, representative of the beginnings of fecundity; a female, strong of limb and superb of physique, enfolds in her arms two infants, while her mate, of no less powerful build and rude force, kneeling beside her, gives her an embrace typical of the overpowering parental instinct. ”

“ The fact that there is pain in childbirth, or, if through modern medical science, the pain is eliminated, is beside the point. Childbirth consists of a new baby coming into the world. The mother might even die, but childbirth has taken place. ”

“ The fact, therefore, is now scientifically established that the embryo from the first moment of conception or fecundation is a human being, having a human immortal soul.
II. Now we come to the direct study of abortion. Abortion, or miscarriage, strictly means the expulsion of the fœtus before it is viable, i.e., before it is sufficiently developed to continue its life outside of the maternal womb. The period of arrival at viability is usually after the twenty-eighth week of gestation. ”

“ As the mother's womb holds us for ten months, making us ready, not for the womb itself, but for the existence into which we seem to be sent forth when at last we are fitted to draw breath and live in the open ”

“ Conception Soon After a Preceding Pregnancy.—Conception sometimes follows birth (or abortion) with astonishing rapidity, and some women seem for a period of their lives either always pregnant or with infants at their breasts. This prolificity is often alluded to, and is not confined to the lower classes, as often stated, but is common even among the nobility. Illustrative of this, we have examples in some of the reigning families in Europe to-day. A peculiar instance is given by Sparkman in which a woman conceived just forty hours after abortion. ”

“ The ordinary [Pg 146] treatment of women in child-bed is irrational, indefensible, and most preposterously foolish. Nothing can be more absurd. Childbirth is not a disease! It is simply the performance of a natural function, like eating, drinking, &c., yet we treat it as though it were some formidable and dangerous malady. Dr. Conquest, a London accoucheur of repute, says—‘Child-birth is that natural process by which the womb expels its contents, and returns to the condition in which it was previously. ”

“ If she be already pregnant it would not be admissible, as the shock of the shower-bath would be too great, and may bring on a miscarriage; but still she ought to continue the cold ablutions.
410. A lady who is prone to miscarry, ought, as soon as she is pregnant, to lie down a great part of every day; she must keep her mind calm and unruffled; she should live on a plain diet; she ought to avoid wine and spirits and beer; she should retire early to rest, and she must have a separate sleeping apartment. ”

“ In general they miscarry early the first time, from the womb not relaxing sufficiently, but go a little longer the next time, and longer still the next, and so on till they reach the full period. The fibres of the womb have gradually become accustomed to relax, and have borne the irritation longer and longer each pregnancy, till at last they have forborne to contract till the proper time. I knew one female who miscarried twenty-one times in succession, getting gradually nearer to the full period each time, till at last she reached nine months, and was rewarded with a living child. ”

“ The method of transferring the influence of the afterbirth from the real mother to the victim was not explained, and in fact the practice was revealed with a good deal of reluctance.
Birth (2178-2293) Informants report that the baby was not touched, either by the mother or her attendants, until the afterbirth was expelled. The birth and recuperation were carried out in a pit filled with warm ashes. A slow birth was blamed on the belief that the mother had slept too much or been lazy during her pregnancy. ”

“ Death was the sure Midwife to all Children, and Infants passed immediately from the Womb to the Grave; who would not burst with Grief, to see the Stock for a future Generation hang upon the Breasts of a dead Mother? ”

“ From the moment that I understood the frequency of the attempts made to prevent impregnation and induce abortion, I felt that I had a key to the loss of beauty, of expression, and the sweet maternal charm, which every one who thinks must miss in this generation of women. ”

“ How ennobling, how imposing is Maternity, when thus bestowed and thus accepted! How sublime its responsibilities, how pure its joys! How heroic its sufferings, how august its martyrdom, when thus joyfully and calmly endured! There is no heroism of earth so imposing, so sublime, and so full of glory, as that of Maternity, when joyfully accepted, and lovingly and calmly endured! No human act can be so potent and so lasting in its results. But no agony is so appalling as that of a Maternity from which the soul of woman shrinks with disgust and horror. ”

“ Premature labor designates the time of expulsion as between the twenty-eighth week to within a few weeks before the normal termination of pregnancy. Miscarriage is the term popularly used for the accidental loss of the products of conception. Abortion, in the popular mind, expresses the intentional loss of the products of conception. Abortion in the medical sense, takes place about once in every four or five pregnancies. ”

“ In her frightened heart the frigid woman has always detested and feared her capacity to become pregnant. To her this faculty has seemed onerous and burdensome, a curse. In pregnancy she feels trapped, sick at heart and in body during it, increasingly frightened of delivery as the day of confinement approaches. ”

“ But that which is the womb, is the bosom also: both bosom and womb are put for a secret place. What meaneth, “from the womb”? From what is secret, from what is hidden; from Myself, from My substance; this is the meaning of “from the womb;” for, “Who shall declare His generation?” [15] Let us then understand the Father saying unto the Son, “From My womb before the morning star have I brought Thee forth.” What then meaneth, “before the morning star”? The morning star is put for the stars, as if the Scripture signified the whole from a part, and from one conspicuous star all the stars. ”

“ The radiance of the highest form of motherhood is that of the transfigured saint, hallowed by suffering comprehended and endured, transmuted into a service beyond and above the lower desires of self.
For long, indeed for the many millions of years during which she has shown a motherhood comparable with that of human beings, [2] Nature has essentially trapped and tricked the mother into her motherhood. ”

“ Abortion or miscarriage, which usually is accidental, sometimes becomes habitual; and at about the same period of conception, on many successive occasions, this disappointment will happen.
If there is a strong claim in the ordinary occurrences of pregnancy, for an attentive regard to the condition of mind as well as [Pg 33] body, it acquires its utmost urgency in those conditions in which habitual miscarriage happens. ”

“ For all the superfluous blood in women, that owing to their languor and thinness of spirit floats about on the surface and oppresses them, has a safety-valve provided by nature in the menses, which relieve and cleanse the rest of the body, and fit the womb for conception in due season. But after conception nature stops the menses, and arrests the flow of the blood, using it as aliment for the babe in the womb, until the time arrives for its birth, and it requires a different kind of food. ”

“ In the normal course of nature the living embryo carries on its work of self-evolution within the maternal womb, deriving its nourishment from the placenta through the vital cord, till, on reaching maturity, it is by the contraction of the uterus issued to lead its separate life. Abortion is a fatal termination of this process. ”