Obstetrical Nursing: A Text-Book on the Nursing Care of the Expectant Mother, the Woman in Labor, the Young Mother and Her BabyVan Blarcom, Carolyn Conant
Science
Obstetrical Nursing: A Text-Book on the Nursing Care of the Expectant Mother, the Woman in Labor, the Young Mother and Her Baby
Van Blarcom, Carolyn Conant
Infants -- Care; Maternity nursing; Pregnancy
The =skin changes= consist chiefly in the appearance of striæ and the
increased pigmentation to which reference has already been made. There
is also an increased activity of the sebaceous and sweat glands and the
hair follicles, the latter sometimes resulting in the hair becoming much
more abundant during the period of gestation. Although the pigmented
areas on the breasts and abdomen never quite return to their original
hue, the _chloasmata_, sometimes called the “masque des femmes
enceintes,” practically always disappear and leave no trace, a fact that
is frequently a comfort to an expectant mother.
The =carriage= is somewhat affected during pregnancy because the
increased size and weight of the abdominal tumor shifts the centre of
gravity. In an effort to preserve an upright position the woman throws
back her head and shoulders and finally assumes a gait that may be
described as a waddle, particularly noticeable in short women.
=Temperature changes= are probably not caused by pregnancy _per se_,
though some authorities believe that there is normally a slight
elevation during the latter part of the day.
=Mental and emotional changes= are usually included among the
alterations which occur during pregnancy, but the present status of
psychiatry suggests that this may not be altogether true. It is a fact
that many pregnant women show marked mental and emotional unbalance, but
as yet there seems to be no evidence that these states are inherently
due to pregnancy, though the same condition may recur in the same woman
each time that she is pregnant.
We shall consider this important subject more at length in the chapter
on mental hygiene, so it may be enough simply to say at this juncture
that, in a sensitively strung or uncertainly poised woman, the state of
being pregnant may be merely the last straw, so to speak, that upsets
her equilibrium; and that some other experience, which would be an equal
strain upon her slender ability to make adjustments, would result in
exactly the same mental or emotional distortion, just as certain
physical signs in pregnancy may be produced also in the non-pregnant
state, and are not, therefore, necessarily inherent to the gravid state.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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