These fanciful beliefs, however, are sometimes serious matters to the young woman who is traveling, day by day, toward a great and mysterious event, and they should not be laughed to scorn, but explained away seriously and with sympathy. She may be told quite simply, that after conception she gives her baby only nourishment; that the baby’s connection with her body is through the cord and placenta, in neither of which are there nerves; and that even if the blood could carry mental and nervous impulses, which it cannot, the maternal and fetal blood never come in actual contact with each other. A tale which she has heard about a woman who saw something distressing and later gave birth to a marked child may cease to worry her if she is reminded of the innumerable babies, beautiful and unmarked, which are born to women who have had equally shocking experiences. It is scarcely probable that any woman lives through the ten months of pregnancy without seeing, hearing or thinking things that would disfigure a baby if maternal impressions could produce such results, and yet newborn babies are very rarely blemished. Although the ultimate causes of marks and deformities of the fetus are not definitely known, they are probably to be found in faulty development very early in the embryonic life, and, therefore, are not preventable. HYGIENE OF PREGNANCY In coming to the expectant mother’s personal hygiene, we find that an understanding of the physiology of pregnancy almost of itself indicates what this hygiene should include. We shall take it up in detail, however, and describe what is at present considered a reasonable outline of the routine desired for the average pregnant woman, who is found by careful examination to be normal and free from complications, and needing only to keep well. But, as has been said, and must be oft repeated, the ideal routine cannot be deposited _en bloc_ upon all expectant mothers. It must be adjusted to the individual and to her circumstances. EXCRETIONS. Although, as has been explained previously, the pregnant woman does not have to eat for two, she does have to eliminate the waste and broken-down products from two bodies, through her own excretory organs: the kidneys, skin, lungs and bowels. True, the amount of the baby’s ash is not great, but is of such a character that its elimination is important and increases the strain upon the maternal excretory apparatus.