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




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