Volume 1
The household physician : a family guide to the preservation of health and to the domestic treatment of ailments and disease, with chapters on food and drugs and first aid in accidents and injuries / by J. McGregor-Robertson ; with an introduction by John G. McKendrick.
- M'Gregor-Robertson, J. (Joseph), 1858-1925
- Date:
- 1899
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The household physician : a family guide to the preservation of health and to the domestic treatment of ailments and disease, with chapters on food and drugs and first aid in accidents and injuries / by J. McGregor-Robertson ; with an introduction by John G. McKendrick. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![SIGNS OF PREGNANCY. Healthy Womanhood.] While 280 days have been mentioned as the ordinary duration of human pregnancy, there is good reason for believing that very considerable variation in the length of time may occur, and yet the pregnancy be a perfectly natural one. Cases are on record where the only possible conclusion was that pregnancy had extended to 295 days. In Scotch law and according to the French Code the utmost limit is 300 days. Signs of Ppegnancy.—It may at the very outset be observed that up to the fourth month it is not possible to obtain any certain sign of pregnancy. Indeed, it may be said that the eio-hteenth week is about the earliest time when any really reliable evidence can be piocuied. It is possible for experienced persons to be de- ceived even long past that period, and women who have already borne children are occasion- ally themselves under the delusion that they are with child up to a time very close on that at which confinement would be expected. At the same time there are signs present very early in the course of pregnancy that, in ordinary cases, are accepted as sufficiently conclusive, which, however, ought not to be taken as satis- factory evidence against a woman protesting against such a conclusion. These early signs are; stoppage of the monthly illness, morning sickness, and changes in the breasts. Stoppage of the monthly illness {cessation of menstruation) is usually the first sign of pregnancy, for as a general rule throughout pregnancy there is no discharge whatever. There is, however, a number of cases in which the monthly illness does not cease immediately after conception, but goes on for a month or two thereafter, creating some doubt in the woman’s mind as to the period of conception. In a smaller number of cases the illness occurs, almost as usual, up to even the fifth or sixth month, and in much fewer cases seems to occur regularly throughout the pregnancy. Some doubt may be occasioned in such cases, as has been already said. It is, however, much more important to remember that the monthly illness may cease for many reasons totally unconnected with pregnancy. It is quite common for the illness to become very irregular, to recur at long intervals, or to cease altogether for many months in young persons, as an effect of a depressed general system, or of some distur- bance of health totally unconnected with the generative organs. Various disorders of the generative organs also cause interruption of the periodic illness for long periods. While, theie- fore, cessation of the illness in a married woman will quite properly lead one to suspect the oc- currence of pregnancy and to seek for further evidence, it would be grossly irnproperon account of this alone to suspect anything of the kind in the unmarried. Unfortunately this has too often been done most unjustly and with most un- happy results. Such a sign as this must not be interpreted by itself. For instance it has hap- pened that while, as regards the womb itself the illness has occurred, the discharge has not found an outlet owing to some obstruction of the passajres. The discharge has been pent up within the cavity of the womb; and this has gone on month after month, the material accu- mulating within the womb and producing en- largement, and when it has gone on long enough the appearance of swelling of the abdomen. Such swelling, taken with no ai)pearance of monthly illness, has seemed conclusive evidence of pregnancy, with gi'ievous results to innocent persons. By itself then this su])pression of monthly illness is not to be held as offei’ing any sufficient evidence one way or another. Morning sickness is another common occur- rence early in pregnancy, but like the former it is not constant, nor yet is it reliable. It is specially in the morning and early part of the day that the sickness is felt, hence the phrase morning sickness,” and it wears off as the day advances. The feeling of sickness is gene- rally accompanied by vomiting. It is common- est in the first months of ijregnancy, beginning about the fourth or fifth week, and often dis- appears after the womb begins to rise iq) into the cavity of the belly, that is in the course of the fourth month; but it occasionally lasts through the whole nine months, producing much distress and great exhaustion. After the few early months it may disappear to return during the last months, owing jirobabl}'- to local irrita- tion of the stomach caused by the proximity of the much-enlarged womb. Many mothers hardly sutler from it at all. Others are not afflicted with sickness, but with other kinds of digestive trouble, heartburn specially, water-brash, flatu- lence, acid indigestion, and so on. Different persons are affected in this respect in different ways, and even as regards the same person the course of one pregnancy may be very different from that of another. One curious form of digestive disturbance is the aversion that may arise for certain foods formerly enjoyed, and](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28124674_0001_0559.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
