Tokology : $b A book for every womanStockham, Alice B. (Alice Bunker)
Science
Tokology : $b A book for every woman
Stockham, Alice B. (Alice Bunker)
Women -- Health and hygiene
Therefore, to establish conditions which will overcome many previous
infractions of law, _dress_ naturally and physiologically; _live_ much
of the time _out of doors_; have _abundance of fresh air_ in the house;
let _exercise_ be _sufficient_ and _systematic_; pursue a _diet of
fruit_, rice and vegetables; _regular rest_ must be faithfully taken;
_abstain_ from the sexual relation. To those who will commit themselves
to this course of life, patiently and persistently carrying it out
through the period of gestation, the possibilities of attaining a
healthy, natural, painless parturition will be remarkably increased.
If the first experiment should not result in a painless labor, it,
without doubt, will prove the beginning of sound health. Persisted in
through years of married life, the ultimate result will be more and
more closely approximated, while there will be less danger of post
partum diseases; and better and more vigorous children will be produced.
Then pregnancy by every true woman will be desired, and instead of
being a period of disease, suffering and direful forebodings, will
become a period of health, exalted pleasure and holiest anticipations.
Motherhood will be deemed the choicest of earth’s blessings; women
will rejoice in a glad maternity, and for any self-denial will be
compensated by healthy, happy, buoyant, grateful children.
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, in a lecture to ladies, thus strongly states
her views regarding maternity and painless parturition: “We must
educate our daughters to think that motherhood is grand, and that God
never cursed it. That the curse, if it be one, may be rolled off, as
man has rolled away that of labor; as it has been rolled from the
descendants of Ham. My mission among women is to preach this new
gospel. If you suffer, it is not because you are cursed of God, but
because you violate his laws. What an incubus it would take from woman
could she be educated to know that the pains of maternity are no curse
upon her kind. We know that among the Indians the squaws do not suffer
in childbirth. They will step aside from the ranks, even on the march,
and return in a short time bearing with them the new-born child. What
an absurdity, then, to suppose that only enlightened Christian women
are cursed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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