Illustrated edition of Painless childbirth

Front matter

Copyright N?._

IGjfLf s book for the is that

of our ^plying :ct and

Preface

SIX thousand years of agony! Six thousand years of unnecessary suffering ! It seems scarcely credible, yet it is a fact, that for all these years our race has been perpetuated in pain and anguish. What a sacrifice for woman to make on the altar of maternal affection, while all this time her male companion has accepted the tradional superstitions of the past that it ?nust be, apparently satisfied to see her suffer in childbirth, with little or no effort for her relief or the prevention of her agony.

Doubtless many to whom our views are presented will at first declare " Painless Childbirth" a preposterous idea, but it will be because they jump at the conclusion before they investigate and consider the methods by which it is to be accomplished. It will be because they think that as woman has endured so much misery through all these years she must continue to do so for all time to come.

To blindly accept the doctrine that our race can be perpetuated only in the midst of cruel pains is a pernicious submission to credulity and superstition almost as fallacious as it is wicked.

Though it may be contrary to what is generally

PREFACE

observed I assert that the terrible agony woman suffers at childbirth is unnecessary, and may, in most cases at least, either be greatly modified or entirely overcome. In proof of this assertion scores of women have submitted the plans detailed in the following pages to the test of practical experience with the most gratifying results. They have found that by following a few easy and simple instructions the duration of labor may be reduced to a few hours or minutes and that pains may be rendered so slight as to be scarcely worthy of notice. In addition, they have found that the same rules have entirely relieved the annoyances so often an accompaniment of gestation.

I do not profess to have originated the idea that childbirth should be without pain, although so far as I am aware I have been first to show the relations between the causes of pain and their remedies and put the same into a practical form that woman might avail herself of their advantage. I do not wish to be understood that no one else has done anything in this direction. I have endeavored to give credit wherever it is due, and if I have failed to do justice in any case it has been unintentional. I do not hesitate to say that I have made use of their views and added my own; at the same time I have endeavored to render them all practicable and by the combination increase the advantages.

I confess astonishment that obstetric literature should be so barren of suggestions for the prevention of pain at labor as it is. The genius of obstetricians seems to have been directed to the successful accomplishment of labor rather than to the prevention of

PREFACE

suffering, consequently their art has been of advantage chiefly in difficult and protracted labors, which fortunately occur in but a limited proportion of births.

My attention was at first directed to the fact that some women suffer so much more severely than others, and I was led to inquire why the sufferings of all might not be reduced to the minimum. The answer was that the physical conditions of all women were not equally favorable to the avoidance of pain. The next step was to decide, if possible, what caused these unfavorable conditions and to seek for a method by which they might be rendered more favorable. Physiology had taught me that all functions when properly performed, as nature had intended, should be without pain, and as childbirth is a natural function of woman I reasoned that it should be painless. It then remained to find means that would overcome these morbid conditions so generally attendant upon this function and make the process a painless one. How well I have succeeded, those who follow these suggestions will be able to answer.

The accomplishment of this purpose necessitated overcoming as far as possible the diseases peculiar to women, and a separate chapter on this subject was prepared, describing such means as would be likely to prove successful in her hands, and which I have the satisfaction of knowing have been productive of great good, although in a few instances in which severe complications in the way of chronic diseases existed I have found it advisable to give special advice that could be of little use to the general reader in the conduct of her own treatment.

As the mother and child are so nearly inseparable

PREFACE

I have endeavored to give some practical advice regarding the recognition and treatment of the diseases of early life, fully believing that the time-honored maxim, that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," still holds good, and if the mother recognizes the disease in its incipiency she may often call to her assistance such means as will prevent fatal consequences or avert lifelong affliction.

Good, healthy children must always be regarded by the pure in heart as chief of "God's choicest blessings, " and it is to be hoped those whose homes are cheerless and desolate may find comfort in these pages as well as those who rejoice in the little darling's affection. Trusting that Healthy Mothers and Healthy Children may afford comfort to all classes and carry joy, happiness and health into the millions of homes over our broad land is the sincerest wish of

The Author

Chapter I

Co-existent with life itself — from the earliest period of human existence to the present, obedient to the Divine command, designed to subserve one of the grandest purposes of nature, essential to the preservation and continuance of our race — are the sexual attributes of man.

Our first parents were created with the same physiological differences that characterize and distinguish the sexes today, and though they were created in a state of maturity there was engrafted upon their constitutions those self-same inherent properties that actuate mankind in the present, having been transmitted from parent to offspring through the process of generation.

What love is to the soul, the sexual attributes are to the physical part of man. Love is the rudimental element of the soul, the essence of the Almighty; sexual attributes, the medium through which the spirit essence is transmitted to and engrafted upon the physical being. Both are divine gifts, in perfect harmony with man's happiness and conducive to his enjoyment. " Love constitutes the foundation of human nature; " it is the motive power, as it were, of our impulses, actuating, regulating, refining human character. " Sexuality implies reproduction" and, associated with love, is an instinct, the office of which is to repair the ravages of death by a continual transmission of life. The sexual passion is one of the most powerful impulses, and when subordinate to reason and love its purpose "is rather to subserve the object of continuing the species than merely its own gratification. " "Sensuality is an unbridled desire which kills the soul. " "It degrades love and brutalizes man. "

Man is a rational being, endowed with reasoning powers, capable of comprehending his attributes and understanding the laws of their application. It is his duty to understand and observe whatever contributes to his happiness and avoid whatever may cause suffering and misery. Ignorance will not protect us from the penalties of broken laws.

It is by no means the authors wish to offend the fastidious or pander to depraved tastes, yet the conviction is constantly forced upon him that if the public were better instructed upon sexual questions far less suffering and crime would exist. "The proper study of mankind is man," and it is very appropriately said, "knowledge is safety." Reason instead of instinct should govern our acts. The attributes capable of contributing to our enjoyment as well as preserving our lives are too often perverted and abused, and thus become sources of pain and death. It is, therefore, proper that we understand these facts and live accordingly; that we govern our passions instead of permitting them to govern us. This we cannot do if we do not understand the relations between cause and effect.

If we are ignorant of the necessity of restraining our animal propensities and of keeping them within proper bounds, if we do not know their boundaries or if we are ignorant that we incur certain penalties if we overstep these boundaries we will be constantly liable to violate both divine and natural laws and be punished for the same, though at the same time not realize what we are being punished for. The majority of people blame Providence for their afflictions, while the truth is they have, though perhaps unwittingly, broken some law of their existence. It is not the author's intent to enter into the consideration of these laws and their effects in this work any farther than relates to the causes of pain in maternity and how to avoid them, yet he hopes these hints will lead the reader to investigate the laws of life and the penalties imposed for violating them.

Neither sex is complete in itself, but the diversity attracts the one to the other— to complete the one by union with the other. Neither alone is capable of transmitting life, and their union is necessary not only for the welfare of each other but also for the purpose of carrying out the divine command, " multiply and replenish the earth. " This attraction of the sexes "is the basis of marriage and of the laws and customs which recognize the life-choice of one woman for one man."

When love is pure and true it does not find its complete satisfaction except in the indissoluble bond of marriage. Marriage is its natural consummation.

Before sexual union it is the man who loves the most earnestly, because he sacrifices more — pains, marches, contests; he spares nothing.

When the act is consummated, it is, in her turn, the woman who loves more and for a longer time. Then her love becomes labor and suffering; she must nourish with her blood the being to which man has communicated life; she must bring it into the world in the midst of cruel pain; she must continue for it incessant cares. — Bourgeios.

Most observers concede that the sexual. passion is stronger in men than in women; indeed, some women have none at all; and though the absence of this passion is in most cases the result of disease or the early abuse of this function there are cases met with in which sexual apathy is the only abnormal condition present. In such cases philoprogenitiveness may be perfectly developed, and I have met many cases of the kind where women have become mothers without experiencing any sexual emotion whatever.

There is another class in which a proper and natural degree of passion exists, while in still another though smaller class it exists in an unnatural degree, often amounting to nymphomania, sl disease manifested by excessive erotic desires which are controlled with great difficulty, if at all. Those of the first class, incapable of experiencing the emotions that influence and control the latter, regard them with contempt and hatred, when pity would be far more proper. Fortunately, such abnormal conditions are amenable to proper therapeutic measures.

There should be neither passion, pleasure nor pain which is not shared by both sexes. Generation is a duty; " Children are a good and not an evil, " and the feelings that impel to reproduction are as much a part of nature as is the hunger or thirst that prompts us to eat or drink. But it is a physiological fact that the moderate use of any function contributes to health, longevity and enjoyment, while excessive indulgence is punished with physical ills.*

Although it is possible for conception to occur where no sexual passion is manifested, nevertheless it is true "that the disposition of the woman at that time has much power in the formation of the foetus, both in modifying its physical constitution and in determining the character and temperament of its mind."

Her influence over the unborn does not by any means end with conception. For nine months she continues to impress upon it mental and physical characteristics that to a very great extent shape its future course and determine its usefulness in society. The moral influence of the mother must not be forgotten; for it is while the rudimental brain and nervous system are being developed that impressions are easiest made and most apt to remain. Small influences at this time may grow into great variations of character in future.

True, the impress of the father will be seen in the child, but it is during gestation that the foetus is a part of the mother herself — "blood of her blood, bone of her bone " and, we may add, nerve of her nerve.

Circumstances that influence the life of the mother during this interesting period necessarily exert a similar influence upon the child in a greater or less degree. The stronger constitution of the mother may not be permanently impressed by external influences, while the child may be so affected that a life-time will not

*In this consideration, the author is desirous of being understood to mean reproduction, under such moral and social laws as govern the people where it takes place; it not being his intention to discuss monogamy, bigamy, polygamy or promiscuity in this work.

be long enough to efface them. Thus hereditary characteristics are transmitted and developed; thus ante-natal influences shape the destiny of the unborn.

Excessive gratification of the sexual passions exhausts the vital and nervous forces, deranges the vegetative functions and lays the foundation of various diseases; and the diseases and physical conditions of the parents at the time of conception and during gestation will materially modify the constitutions of their offspring.

While the reproductive organs are not the seat of life, it is a well-established fact in physiology and pathology that they exert a most profound influence upon the performance of every function of the animal economy. Concerned as they are in the transmission of life, it is through them that vital and other characteristics are handed down to posterity, so that the welfare of the future generations depends materially upon their inheritance. Children born of parents suffering from diseases of these organs are generally defective in vital and other qualities, ill-tempered, sickly and short-lived. — Baker.

Children born of parents of fair intellectual qualities, but who have indulged their animal propensities to such an extent that they are suffering vital defects, will usually be bright, keen of perception, have large heads, but will be physically weak, fall easy victims to diseases of various kinds and in very many instances die under ten years of age. Sometimes the arts of the physician will avert those fatal tendencies of such constitutions, but were he able to do this far oftener than he is how much better would it be to know the laws that regulate such conditions, and by living in obedience to them avert the penalties of breaking them. Even though cures for diseases were always possible how much better it would be to prevent them.

Carry the question of vital transmission farther. Exhaust the vital qualities of the parents still more; set up the diseases that follow the breaking down of the system by excessive sexual indulgences, and the children will rarely have the redeeming qualities of the former class, but will be weak, idiotic, deformed and epileptic.

Certainly the highest and holiest duties of earth are consigned to woman; she is the one who moulds the physical form of her offspring and rears it to the stature of man and shapes its moral and intellectual destiny. The embryonic being draws nutriment and subsistence from its maternal parent and derives its vital impress from the parent stock. Loveliness begets loveliness; purity begets purity; wisdom begets wisdom; selfishness begets selfishness; hatred, hatred; bad temper, bad temper; licentiousness, licentiousness; crime, crime; etc., etc.

Excessive venereal indulgence, excessive child-bearing, excessive nursing are terribly destructive to the vital forces of woman's organization. * * * This slavish drudgery to maternal requirements is the cause of many distressing disorders, producing irritability of temper and all those domestic contretemps which so often destroy the happiness of the family relation and bring odium and disgrace upon the marital institution designed by the ordinances of nature and heaven for the highest felicity of man and woman in a state of terrestrial existence. — Pancoast.

The influence of moderation in these matters cannot be overestimated. The evil influence of excesses are to be seen in both parent and child. As the excessive indulgences exhaust the vital forces, irritability is increased, the sensorium becomes more and more acute and trivial ills become severe pains or serious diseases, and the natural sensibility becomes so greatly exaggerated that the mother is subjected to continual agony both before and after birth.

The act of generation is a voluntary one, but nature has so placed it under the empire of pleasure that the voice of discretion is no longer heard and the will is led captive. Hence, it is well, for hygienic reasons, to consider its laws.

Too frequent repetition of the reproductive act is known to be followed by consequences injurious to the general health. Too rigid continence is not unattended in many constitutions with danger, for the victory over passion may be dearly bought. Science recommends the adoption of a wise mean between the two extremes equally destructive. By following her counsel, woman may escape from the hysterical and other disorders which often wait as well upon excesses as upon the too great demands of that passion which claims satisfaction as a natural right. — Napheys.

The interests of man and woman are the same. Their object is to promote their own happiness, to prolong their own lives and to perpetuate the race. The higher degree of perfection they attain, the greater their enjoyment, the greater their immunity from suffering. Pleasure should never be bought at the expense of pain. Each succeeding generation should be more perfect than its predecessor. Our race is susceptible of culture, but it cannot be trusted to chance.

Certain definite and well-regufkted laws are in existence throughout the universe. These rules must be understood and obeyed. Obedience will be rewarded and transgression punished. The providence of God asks nothing unreasonable of us, nor will it be likely to suspend any of its rules to favor an erring mortal. Ignorance will not be accepted in extenuation of disobedience. The child that puts its tiny finger into the fire, ignorant of what the result will be, is as certainly burned as the older one who knows the consequences. The insane man leaps from a precipice and is dashed to pieces on the rocks below. He breaks the law of gravity and pays the penalty with his life. The law of gravitation is not suspended because he is unaccountable for his act. So with all other natural laws.

Pain is the result of having broken some law. Had the law not been broken, the pain would not have been felt. These are facts. They look us squarely in the face. We may reason from cause to effect, from effect to cause, the result is the same. The question plainly presented to every individual is : Is immunity from pain and suffering worth the little effort required to prevent them? It is purposed in the following pages to consider some of the causes of pain, and teach prevention. As we improve our condition and knowledge, greater results may be anticipated, but we shall derive immediate benefit. Improvement is a forced state; if we relax our efforts we shall be extremely liable to retrograde.

We have shown that it is a fixed law that the capacities and dispositions of the parent are engrafted upon the offspring. Sick parents beget sickly children. Parents who keep their sexual functions in a state of excitement beget children that will be precocious in this direction. Consumptives beget consumptives. Venereal diseases descend through several generations, blighting the lives of many in the descent. Stockraisers study the law of hereditary transmission, and is the human race of less consequence? All these considerations have a more or less direct bearing upon the pains and perils of child-bearing, and it is designed in the following* pages to specify these causes, explain their operations, point out both preventives and remedies and render each woman capable of painless childbirth.

Chapter II

The office of maternity is peculiarly that of woman, and is the highest and holiest to which she can aspire. Its attainment requires many sacrifices which she is ever ready to make, and she considers herself amply repaid for the pains and perils she has to undergo when she clasps to her breast her new-born babe, the culmination of her anxiety, the central object of her affections, to her the crowning blessing of earth.

Maternity is a legitimate object of woman's existence, to be attained only through the exercise of a certain function which, for the welfare of society, is not to be indulged outside of the marriage institution. For this reason, if for no other, the parties to a marriage contract should study the law of adaptation. Each party should possess good health, be free from any hereditary taint, and be by disposition prepared to reciprocate the love of each other. To love and be loved, to forgive and be forgiven is -essential to the happiness of both.

Philoprogenitiveness or love of offspring is a faculty that " renders children the richest treasure of their parents, and casts into the shade all the toil and expense they cause and lacerates them with bitter pangs when death or distance tears them asunder. It is much larger in woman than in man. " The father may love his children earnestly, ardently, but it is different from the love of the mother. His affection may be turned away from them, but the love of the mother endureth to the end.

The intensity of a mother's love is manifested in the sacrifices she makes to secure her child's happiness. Perhaps forsaken by the father of her babe she struggles on alone in the world, careless alike of frowns and hardships, only intent upon its welfare. Dying, her last prayer is for her child.

She deprives herself of innumerable pleasures, foregoes the enjoyments of society, assumes the risks of unknown dangers, endures the pains of childbirth — many times suffering from the earliest period of gestation until long after delivery, to attain the joys of motherhood.

Maternity begins with concepti6n and ends only with the grave. Maternal instincts may exist in early life, and in the barren, but she must pass through the process of gestation and undergo the ordeal of delivery — she must, in a word, become a mother — before she can fully realize what maternity means.

The adaptability of the female to the requirements of this important office is manifested very early in life — in childhood. While the boy plays with his ball, his horse and gun, manifests ambition, courage, power, exhibiting his aspirations to manhood, the little girl plays with her doll, imitates the matron and by word and act indicates her wishes for a "real baby" long before she can possibly realize even in the slightest degree the difficulties and dangers the gratification of her desires imply.

Though it is through sexuality that maternity is to be attained, the maternal instinct is entirely distinct from the sexual impulse, and the realization of maternity is often experienced without any knowledge whatever of sexual gratification on the part of the mother.

Professor Lay cock says :

Maternity is the first and fundamental duty of the female,' the male never in a single instance, in any organism, contributes nutrient material.

Madame Sirrey says:

Those women who comprehend their rights and duties as mothers of families certainly cannot complain of their destiny.

The office of maternity is respected the world over. In ancient Rome, the house of the newly-made mother was designated by the suspension of wreaths over the door to prevent intrusion and as a mark of reverence. To encourage this holy office various countries have legislated in its favor and pensions have been awarded to women who have borne many children.

All women are not fitted for the duties and. responsibilities of this holy office. There are a variety of circumstances that should be considered in contemplating maternity. When one or both parents are suffering from diseases that influence primarily their vitality and are liable to be transmitted to their progeny they have no right to bring beings into the world who must perpetuate the parents' misery by a life of continual suffering. Diseases or infirmities which threaten directly the physical or moral life of the individual are propagated above all by generation.

The different forms of mania are liable to be aggravated by genital transmission. Epilepsy is liable to degenerate into cerebral maladies in the offspring. Consumption perpetuates itself in the race and may become contagious for the other parent. Uncured syphilis is transmitted through several generations. Improper temperamental alliances often develop disease among children where it had not been manifested in the parents. We should seek in marriage to neutralize by opposing constitutions, temperaments and predispositions the morbid hereditary elements which may be found in husband and wife. Marriage alliances should never be contracted between two persons who are essentially the same in temperament. We should seek to oppose the debility of one parent by a strong constitution in the other. When matrimonial contracts are formed contrary to the above rules the wife should sacrifice her maternal desires for the welfare of the being she would otherwise bring into the world, lest she entail upon the prospective object of affection a life of continuous misery. Among the lower animals the most studious care is taken to breed only from the very best quality of stock; quantity is sacrificed to quality; and is the welfare of the human race of less importance?

We contend that no parents have a right to beget more children than they can comfortably support, and we appeal to the nobler sentiments of our fellow men in support of our position. We assert that it is the privilege of every woman to control her maternal function — to say when she shall have children, and how many. It does not follow because she is married that she shall be robbed of her health and every enjoyment in life, in compliance to the sexual behests of her companion; and no man of feeling, sense or decency will be willing to see the health, the beauty and the enjoyment of his wife sacrificed to excessive child-bearing.

A host of writers — medical and non-medical — are arrayed against the subjection of woman to the. infamous laws of modern civilization which are too often upheld by religion. By the laws of our country it is a criminal offense to procure or aid in procuring or to instruct any woman by what means she can regulate the number of her offspring by preventing conception. Under this law she must beget children, even though she knows they must suffer and die of some hereditary malady. Under this law she must beget children and bring them up in poverty, and subject them to starvation, vice and crime. But one alternative is left, and that is the criminal one of foeticide or child-murder! Indeed, this law demands that she sacrifice health, happiness, principle, and even life, in obedience to the demands of this most infamous enactment, in the passage of which she had not even a minority vote.

Could the one single law of Providence governing reproduction be suspended or reversed, and every man be compelled to have just one child, even though they might have the benefit of the following rules, the first act of our next Legislature would be the repeal of this obnoxious law, and every man would provide himself with a preventive.

The distinguished writer, John Stuart Mill, says:

It is strange that intemperance in drink or any other appetite should be condemned so readily, when incontinence in this respect should always meet not only with indulgence but praise. Little improvement can be expected in morality until the producing too large families is regarded with the same feeling as drunkenness or any other physical excess.

The eminent Raciborski, in taking the position that avoidance of offspring to a certain extent is not only legitimate but should be recommended as a measure of good, says :

We know how bitterly we shall be attacked for promulgating this doctrine, but if our ideas only render to society the services we expect of them we shall have effaced from the list of crimes the one most atrocious, without exception, that of child-murder — before or after birth — and we shall have poured a little happiness into the bosoms of despairing families where poverty is allied to the knowledge that offspring can be born only to prostitution and mendacity. The realization of such hopes will console us under the attacks upon our doctrines.

Dr. Edward Reich, says:

After reviewing the multitudinous evils which result to individuals and society from the too rapid increase of families it is much to be wished that the functions of reproduction be placed under the dominion of the will.

Dr. Napheys remarks:

Men are very ready to find an excuse for self-indulgence, and if they cannot get one anywhere else they seek it in religion. They tell woman it is her duty to bear all the children she can.