even in the same week of gestation during each pregnancy; we call this habitual abortion. And this habitual abortion may be independent of disease, such, for instance, as syphilis. The terms threatened, imminent and inevitable abortion require no further explanation.
The Causes of Abortion. Outside of the abortion habit, which may be due partly to heredity or be caused by a diseased condition of the lining membrane of the uterus, the principal cause of abortion and miscarriage is syphilis. And when a woman has had two or three or four or more miscarriages in succession we generally assume the cause to be syphilis, and in most cases the assumption will be correct.
When an abortion is performed by an experienced physician, with the observance of the utmost cleanliness (asepsis and antisepsis), then the abortion is accompanied with very little or no danger; but when performed carelessly, by incompetent, non-conscientious physicians and midwives, the operation is fraught with great danger to the patient's health or to her very life. And abortion is a great cause of premature death and chronic invalidism among women. And as long as the people will remain ignorant of the proper means of regulating their offspring, so long will abortion thrive.
While I recognize that there are cases in which the performance of an abortion is perfectly justifiable from a moral standpoint, for instance in cases of rape or where the mother is unmarried, nevertheless abortion must be recognized as an evil, a necessary evil now and then, but an evil, nevertheless. It is never to be undertaken lightly, or to be considered in a frivolous spirit; and it is the duty of all serious-minded and humanitarian men and women to do everything in their power to remove those conditions which make abortion necessary and unavoidable.
Chapter Seventeen
PRENATAL CARE
Meaning of the Term—Misleading Information by Quasi-Scientists—Exaggerated Ideas Regarding Prenatal Care—Nervous Connection Between Mother and Child—Cases Under Author's Observation—Effects on Offspring—Advice to Pregnant Women—Germ-plasm of Chronic Alcoholic—A Glass of Wine and the Spermatozoa—False Statements—Cases of Violence and Accidents During Pregnancy.
By prenatal care we understand the care taken during pregnancy before the child is born. Used in a wider sense the term includes the care which both parents should take of themselves even before the child is conceived.
Of course the father and the mother should be in the best possible physical and mental condition during the time of conception and even before conception, and the mother should take the very best care of herself—she should be in good health and as calm a spirit as possible during the entire period of gestation. For the general health and condition of the mother does influence the child.
And still I feel impelled to say something which may meet with violent opposition in some quarters. The trouble is, there are too many half-baked scientists in our midst. They spread misleading information and the public at large is too apt to take every statement that has a quasi-scientific seal for something absolute, for something positive, for something that admits of no exceptions.
I have seen so much misery caused by wrong prenatal care teaching and by the foolish, exaggerated ideas on the subject, that I consider it my duty to say something in order to counteract those erroneous notions. I consider it my special mission to destroy error, mysticism and superstition. And the prenatal care teaching as imparted by some unfortunately partakes of all three of the above.
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