In no sense does this book replace the doctor’s care, for it is merely a composite of the advice about simple, everyday little things which the majority of obstetricians give to the average, normal woman. I have stressed the fact that the first need of both mother and baby, from the beginning of pregnancy, is supervision by a physician and that such advice as these pages offer is of value only as it forms a part of his personal care. I have drawn information from “The Practice of Obstetrics,” by J. Clifton Edgar, M. D.; “Obstetrics,” by J. Whitridge Williams, M. D.; “The Prospective Mother,” by J. Morris Slemons, M. D.; “The Diseases of Infants and Children,” by J. P. Crozer Griffith, M. D. and “The Newer Knowledge of Nutrition,” by E. V. McCollum, Ph. D., Sc. D. I am deeply indebted to Dr. J. Clifton Edgar, Dr. Frederick W. Rice and Dr. John W. Harris for helpful advice and criticisms and to Miss Louise A. Schofield for editorial assistance. Practical suggestions have been generously contributed by other doctors, and by nurses, in this country and Canada, whose effective work is inspired by their belief that the future welfare of our race depends upon the care given to-day to maternity patients and their babies. CAROLYN CONANT VAN BLARCOM. 149 East 40th Street New York City INTRODUCTION The childbearing function is a wonderfully complex physiological phenomenon. It affects and is influenced by almost every organ and tissue in the human body. The body of the female child from the earliest weeks of its life in its mother’s womb, while receiving nourishment from her body, through infancy and the years of childhood to maturity is being gradually molded and developed for the special carrying out of this one function—the crowning and most vital act of woman. Although the childbearing function is the origin and source of the human race, existing throughout the ages, the processes connected with it have only in recent years been clearly understood. Our present-day knowledge of the processes connected with childbirth makes it easy to understand how, in the early ages of the human race, the function was a normal function, with little or no danger to mother or child. But with the gradual growth of the race, with the beginning of the struggle for existence and the appearance and spreading of disease, all interfering with the natural growth and development of the body, the function of child bearing ceased to be a normal function, as designed by its Maker, and became one fraught with dangers to both mother and child. Nevertheless, through ignorance of these changes brought on by civilization, the idea that the function is a normal process, the risk slight and fatalities infrequent and when occurring, inevitable, is the almost universal belief to-day.