PAGE PREFACE ix CHAPTER I. THE LOVER’S DREAM 1 II. CONCEIVED IN BEAUTY 9 III. THE GATEWAY OF PAIN 18 IV. THE YOUNG MOTHER-TO-BE: HER AMAZEMENTS 32 V. HER DELIGHTS 39 VI. HER DISTRESSES 44 VII. THE YOUNG FATHER-TO-BE: HIS AMAZEMENTS 52 VIII. HIS DELIGHTS 58 IX. HIS DISTRESSES 62 X. PHYSICAL DIFFICULTIES OF THE EXPECTANT MOTHER 71 XI. PHYSICAL DIFFICULTIES OF THE EXPECTANT FATHER 93 XII. THE UNION OF THREE 99 XIII. THE PROCESSION OF THE MONTHS 113 XIV. PRENATAL INFLUENCE 130 XV. EVOLVING TYPES OF WOMEN 146 XVI. BIRTH AND BEAUTY 161 XVII. BABY’S RIGHTS 171 XVIII. THE WEAKEST LINK IN THE HUMAN CHAIN 183 XIX. THE COST OF COFFINS 201 XX. THE CREATION OF A NEW AND IRRADIATED RACE 208 APPENDICES A. PHYSICAL SIGNS OF COMING MOTHERHOOD 229 B. ON BIRTH 231 C. SUGGESTIONS FOR CALCULATING THE DATE OF ANTICIPATED BIRTH 233 PREFACE This book is written for the same young people who inspired _Married Love_. Many of my readers have asked me to write such a book as this, and I sincerely hope that it will not disappoint them. Many, many people have contributed facts which have helped me to write it. The book, however, is pre-eminently the work of my baby son and his father, whose beautiful spirits have been, and will be, through all eternity united with me in a burning desire to bring light into dark places. M. C. S. Radiant Motherhood CHAPTER I The Lover’s Dream So every spirit, as it is most pure, And hath in it the more of heauenly light, So it the fairer bodie doth procure To habit in, and it more fairely dight, With chearefull grace and amiable sight. For of the soule the bodie forme doth take: For soule is forme, and doth the bodie make. SPENCER: _An Hymne in honour of Beautie_. Every lover desires a child. Those who imagine the contrary, and maintain that love is purely selfish, know only of the lesser types of love. The supreme love of true mates always carries with it the yearning to perpetuate the exquisite quality of its own being, and to record, through the glory of its mutual creation, other lives yet more beautiful and perfect.