generative passages, the expelling of the foetus from the womb would
seem impossible. But Nature, during those months in which she enlarged
the womb to hold its gradually increasing contents, has also increased
the generative passages in size. She has made them soft and
distensible, so that an apparent physical impossibility could take
place, though it is often accompanied by intense suffering. Modern
medical science has made childbirth easier, but the act of childbirth
is usually accompanied by more or less suffering. Excessive pain,
however, is often the result of causes which proper treatment can
remove before and at the time of confinement.
TWILIGHT SLEEP
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. The "Twilight Sleep" process has been used with the
happiest results both for parent and child. Opponents of this system
declare that the use of powerful drugs may injure the child. A method
commended is the administration of a mixture of laughing gas and
oxygen, which relieves the mother and does not affect the child.
THE NEW-BORN INFANT
The average weight of the new-born child is about seven and a half
pounds. It is insensitive to pain for the first few days, and seems
deaf (since its middle ears are filled with a thick mucus) for the
first two weeks. During the first few days, too, it does not seem able
to see. The first month of its existence is purely automatic.
Evidences of dawning intelligence appear in the second month and at
four months it will recognize mother or nurse. Muscularly it is poorly
developed. Not until two months old is it able to hold up its head,
and not until three months does voluntary muscular movement put in an
appearance. The new-born's first self-conscious act is to draw breath.
Deprived of its usual means of supply it must breathe or suffocate.
Its next is to suck milk, lest it starve.
HEREDITY