Feeling of life
The feeling of life is experienced by the pregnant woman in the fifth month. These sensations are like gentle fluttering. Gradually these become more frequent and more pronounced.
"The feeling of 'life' can generally be taken as a definite evidence of pregnancy, although it is not an infallible symptom. for occasionally it is stimulated by other internal sensations."
Child and Mother
The child in the mother is not really a part of the mother. It has its own independent existence and its own independent supply of food, well-stored from the beginning.
"In other words. within the fertilized egg are all packed the innumerable physical and mental qualities and characteristics of the child-to-be, and these can be influenced to hut a very small degree by the experiences of the mother during the period of pregnancy."
Lasting Emotional Disturbances
Passing moods have no effect on the child , inside the mother. Temporary emotional strains exercise no strain. But severe emotional disturbances may upset the pregnant woman's glandular balance and her general physical condition. This will affect the child.
Head-First Theory
In about ninety-six percent cases, it is the head of the new baby that comes out first. The usual position of the fetus is with its head downwards and limbs flexed. In about three percent of the cases, buttocks are the first to appear. These are ''breach'' delivers and carry some risk to the baby''.
The First Cry
"The first instinctive act of the new-born baby is to cry. The transition from the protected and warm surroundings of the mother's womb to the colder, outside environment constitutes a profound change in the life of an infant. Upon birth its communication with the circulation of the mother is interrupted. and it is no longer able to obtain its food and oxygen from that source, with the cry the new-born infant expands its lungs and establishes its own respiration so that it may take in the oxygen directly from the outside air."
The Length of Labour
The length of labour depends upon various factors, such as the size of the coming baby, pelvic dimensions of the mother, the contractile powers of her uterine muscles. The average period of labour is about sixteen hours for the first child and about ten hours for the subsequent child.
Painless Child birth
Childbirth is a natural function and need not be accompanied by a painful labour. And that exactly is the case among the primitive people and the peasants who live in the open, eat good food. lead hard vigorous lives. Many farmer women cut their own cords with a pocketknife and get back to work in a single day. It is the march of civilization, with its increasing tempo of luxury that has made childbirth a very painful operation that calls for the attention of doctors and nurses. Everything is painful today, including death.
Thompson wrote well :
Nothing begins and nothing ends,
That is not paid with moan;
We are born in others' pain,
And perish in our own.
Today, childbirth pains are reduced by obstetrical care and administration of sedatives and anesthetic and psychotherapeutic measures.
Natural Childbirth
Dr. Read has evolved a new approach to childbirth. It is called "Natural childbirth''. According to this method , the pains are largely the result of tensions and fears which must be removed from the mind of the expectant mother. Fears causes muscle fibre of the lower end of uterus to contract instead of relaxing which nature desires.
''If these fears are allayed and women arc taught during pregnancy certain breathing and muscular exercises, childbirth takes place with comparatively little pain. The method is now being tried out in a number of hospitals, and it seems to offer the promise of a valuable psychotherapeutic approach to the problem of childbirth pain. The woman who is prepared physically, mentally and emotionally for the event of labour may sometimes achieve a comparatively painless child. birth and actually becomes a rather satisfying experience for her.''
Caesarean Method
The removal of the child by operating on the abdomen of the mother is called delivery by the Caesarean method. It is said Julius Caesar was born in this way. So, the operation came to be known after him. It is performed where safe delivery by the traditional method is not possible, just as when the mother is very weak and the child inside her plump and -fat. With improvements in surgery, the operation is free from any kind of risk.
Lying-in Period
The lying-in period after childbirth depends upon the health of the. mother. Usually, it varies from one to two weeks. The peasant women' miss their work only a day or two. Today, this period of bed rest has been drastically shortened by many physicians.
Birth of Twins
Twining often occurs in several members of the same family. The tendency can be hereditary. Some women tend to have multiple births each time. This is made possible by having two or more sperms in the same ovum or more than one ovum 111 the uterus. One woman had twins. triplets and even quadruplets from three different husbands. On the other hand, two wives of a Russian peasant gave birth to twins and triplets so that he had eighty children to his credit.
Family Planning
The planning of parenthood constitutes an important individual and social health measure, for it helps to conserve the health of the parents and t he well-being of the children.
Importance of Family Planning
There arc cases in which birth control is absolutely essential. If the woman is suffering from kidney, tuberculosis. heart disease, psychopathic disorders. etc. birth control is absolutely essential. The use of contraception also becomes essential for eugenic reason. Child-bearing should be avoided where the husband or the wife is suffering from physical or mental disorders, because these are likely to be transmitted to the offspring. .
In
" Most of the achievements of civilization have been made possible by man's learning how to control the forces of nature. The use or the lightning rod, of steam heat, of anesthesia during child birth, these are all unnatural in the sense that they tend to interfere natural phenomena or to cheat the laws of nature or to cheat the laws of nature, yet we should hardly wish to do without them. The practice of birth control is but another step in the increase of our power to control human welfare rationally. Few people nowadays deny the need for family planning. It is only a question as to what particular method should be employed for the purpose of controlling conception."
The Safe Period
It is wide1y accepted that there is a rhythm of fertility and sterility in the woman's menstrual month. Impregnation can occur only on certain days of this period. This is called the rhythmic method of birth control.
"The belief that there is a period in the menstrual cycle during which conception is not possible probably dates back to antiquity. Over two thousand years ago. Hindu physicians spoke of a period of absolute sterility in the menstrual month. The mosaic laws. which prohibit sexual relations during the menstrual How and for a week thereafter, were possibly based on the theory that certain ether days of the month were likely to be more fertile."
In the human female only one egg is released every month, and the egg retains its vitality not longer than forty-eight hours. Unless the egg is fertilized during this period, impregnation becomes impossible, At other times intercourse cannot lead to pregnancy.
"Ovulation occurs from fourteen to sixteen days before the beginning of the next menstrual period''. If a woman menstruates largely every twenty eight days, her ovulation will take place between the thirteenth to the fifteenth day of her cycle counting from the day when menstruation began. This would be about the middle of her menstrual month. If the cycles are shorter or longer, then the day of ovulation will come earlier or 1ater. If a woman, for example, menstruates every twenty four days then she would ovulate between the ninth and eleventh day and if she menstruates every thirty-two days, the egg is probably released between the seventeenth and nineteenth day from the beginning of menstruation. In o/her words, the number of days between the beginning of menstruation and the time of ovulation may vary considerably, but the number of days between ovulation and the beginning of the following menstruation are usually fairly constant from fourteen to sixteen days."
Coitus Interruptus
Coitus interrupts is withdrawal of till; male organ just prior to ejaculation and the seminal fluid is discharged outside the female genital tract. This is also called Onanism __ a method adopted by males to prevent conception.
Sterilization
By means of X-rays or it surgical operation, it is possible to make man or woman permanently incapable of reproduction. In the males, there is un artificial obstruction of the sperm cells from the tests. It is the deferens which is blocked. The operation is called vasectomy. In the woman, the passage of egg cells from the ovaries is blocked. The fallopian tubes are cut off or closed. When these are cut or tied, the eggs from the ovaries cannot reach the uterus nor can the sperms gain access to the egg. The operation requires abdominal incision and hospitalization for a week. Therefore, the sterilization of women is a more involved undertaking than the sterilization of men.
Period of Fertility
The childbearing period of a woman extends from the age of fifteen to forty-five years, for about thirty years. But that is not the utmost limit. Women have given, birth to child ten even much longer than that.
'Statistical studies in
The fertility of man lasts longer than that of the woman. Men have become father at sixty and even at seventy. A man became fertile at ninety-seven. But the fertility docs lessen past the youth.
Responsibility for Childlessness
"As a matter of fact, one of. the most significant advances in the study of fertility, has been the rea1izatie1 that the fruitfulness of marriage depends upon the degree of fertility of both mates, and that the responsibility for childlessness must be shared by both husband and wife."
Dangers of Abortion
In the-
Hindu Honeymoon
"In the Kama Sutra, a Hindu classic on marital conduct, Vatsyayana advises that a husband should take ten days in gradually gaining the confidence of his wife before ever attempting to consummate the marital union''.
Artificial Defloration
The primitive tribes artificially dilate or break the hymen before marriage. According to Ploss and Bartels in Woman, hymen is even removed in early childhood. This happens in parts of
Orgasm
Orgasm is erotic stimulation. When a person becomes sexually aroused, the heart beats faster, the blood pressure rises. There is an increased flow of blood into the various organs. The penis, the clitoris, the inner labia, the vagina walls become tight. The nipples or the breast are inflated. A corresponding heightening of nervous tension affects the whole body. This sexual stimulation goes lip and lip to the zenith until the final release. This moment is called orgasm. As the sex act reaches the climax. There is a spasmodic contraction of the muscles surrounding the genitals.
In the man, the orgasm is accompanied by the ejaculation of the seminal fluid. It is ejaculated in a number of rhythmic jets.- The total quantity ejaculated amounts to nearly a teaspoonful, In the woman the orgasm signifies the release of accumulated tension. The experience is described as "a tingling all over", "ba1loons bursting inside", "waves coming after one another in ever-widening
circles".
Azoospermia
"In some cases the seminal fluid contains no spermatozoa at all. a condition known as azoospermia. This may result either from a failure of testes to produce any spermatozoa, or from obstruction in seminal ducts which prevent the sperm cells from passing through."
This can be investigated by a minor operation known as Testicular Biopsy to find out what the trouble is. A minute portion of the testicular tissue is removed for microscopic examination. If the testes arc not producing any spermatozoa at all, the chances of a cure arc remote.
Artificial Insemination
"Artificial insemination merely implies the artificial or mechanical introduction of male seminal fluid into the female genital tract for the purpose of inducing impregnation. The only artificial clement in this procedure is the mechanical injection of the seminal fluid. The spermatozoa are still the natural spermatozoa of the man, and t he egg must, of course, be the natural egg of the woman; conception will occur only when the two meet in the woman's fallopian tube, and not in a laboratory test tube."
The first artificial insemination was practiced by Spallanzani upon a famale dog in 1784. He writes in his Dissertations. "Thus did I succeed in fecundating this quardruped ; and I can say truly that I never received greater pleasure upon any occasion, since I first cultivated experimental philosophy."
Test Tube Babies
Haldane, in his. imaginative booklet, Daedalus on the future potentialities of science, .maintains envisioning a time when the majority of human children will be born in laboratory. He terms it "ectogentically" born. The ovary of a woman will be removed at puberty. It will be kept in a suitable medium. As the eggs matured each month, they would be artificially fertilized with spermatozoa. The resulting embryo will be incubated in the laboratory for nine months, . and then brought into .the world. The sex cells of the eugenically suitable men and women will be selected for breeding purposes.
H. J. Muller, the American biologist, suggests in his book OUI of the Night that the spermatozoa of the selected men can be kept alive through refrigeration long after the death of the individual and used in artificial insemination for the eugenic improvement of mankind. .
Abortion and Miscarriage
"Both imply a premature termination or interruption of a pregnancy. Technically there is a distinction between the two words according to whether the pregnancy the early or later months. In ordinary usage, however, the term 'miscarriage' is applied to a spontaneous and involuntary ending of a pregnancy at any time before the seventh month, while 'abortion' is used to indicate an artificial and deliberate interruption of pregnancy. When a pregnancy terminates after the seventh month, but before full term. that is at a time when the baby is generally large enough to have a fair chance for survival, it is called a premature birth."
It is a wrong belief that slight accidents like falling down the stairs can cause miscarriage. As a rule, even violent strain and physical exercises do not interrupt the course of pregnancy.
Sexual Adjustment
Any number of factors play a part in the adjustment of two persons in marriage-their personalities, the degree of t heir emotional stability, their mutual compatibility, their social and economic situation, family relationships, and many other rhymes and reasons.
Sexual Urge
Moll once divided the sexual urge into two Clements: the impulse towards general bodily contact, "to approach, touch, kiss a person of the opposite sex" and the impulse towards sex union, towards the relief of sexual tension.
In the girl, the desire for bodily contact is much more strongly developed than the desire for genital' contact. The caress, the embrace and the kiss are more satisfying to her, in the beginning, than the actual sexual contact,
Rhythm of Sexual Desire
There is a monthly rhythm in the intensity of the sexual urge, as investigated by Havelock Ellis and others. There is a periodic rising and waning of the sexu31 desire during the menstrual 'month of a Woman. The erotic impl1.1ses are increased a few days before the menstrual flow .or immediately thereafter. There is a second rise of the rhythm of sexual desire in the middle of he menstrual course'. As a rule, the height of sexual desire coincides with the height of sexual fertility.
