CHAPTER XV

MOTHER’S SECOND TALK--DAWNING OF WOMANHOOD

=An interesting change in a girl’s life.=--In the previous talk, we found that God has planned for a most interesting change to take place in a girl’s life. This change from girlhood to womanhood, called puberty, and covering a period of eight years, is brought about by certain changes in the sexual organs. At birth these organs are inactive and remain so until the girl, in this climate, is thirteen or fourteen years of age. In the Southern states it occurs a year sooner. In Central America, puberty comes when the girl is ten and eleven. In Canada this change comes a year later than here. Thus we see that climatic conditions either hasten or retard this change. In climates where puberty is delayed to the fourteenth and fifteenth years, girls are healthier, more energetic and live longer than in warm climates. This would indicate that the longer puberty is delayed in a girl’s life, if she is otherwise healthy, the better for her. If the girl keeps company with wild girls, enjoys obscene jokes, reads cheap novels, entertains impure thoughts or handles her sexual organs, she may cause puberty to come on six months sooner than it naturally would come--a misfortune indeed for her. In a few girls, especially those who develop rapidly, puberty may occur in the eleventh year.

=Signs of puberty.=--During this period of puberty, or adolescence, which usually lasts for eight years, she is changing from a girl to a woman. This is one of the most important events in a girl’s life. The approach of this period is usually heralded by an uneasy feeling in the small of the back, heaviness about the ovaries, sometimes by headaches and possibly by pains in other parts of the body. One of the ovaries has formed a little egg or ovum. A flow of mucus tinged with blood, formed by the mucous membrane of the womb, passes from the body by way of the vagina. This usually lasts about four days. Meanwhile the ovum is conveyed by the fallopian tube to the womb where, after the flow has ceased, it remains several days, before passing from the body by way of the vagina.

=Menstruation.=--The discharge is called the menstrual fluid. If the girl is healthy, this will occur once each lunar month, or every twenty-eight days. It is for this reason that the flow is called menstruation. This word comes from the Latin word “mensis,” meaning a month. This monthly experience is known by several names, “Menses,” “periods,” “courses,” and “unwell.” The doctors use the term “Menses,” and this is doubtless the best one to use.

=How made regular and painless.=--When a girl has good health, does not expose herself so as to take colds, dresses so as not to compress her body and push these organs out of their proper place, takes plenty of outdoor exercise, keeps her mind pure and free from ugly thoughts, and does not abuse her sexual organs, she will be regular in her menses and will feel but little inconvenience or pain. Experience shows that just in proportion as a girl fails to follow the rules I have just stated, will her menses be irregular and painful.

=Physical, mental and moral changes.=--It will be noticed in the first stages of puberty that the limbs are growing larger and more shapely, the shoulders are growing backward and downward, the chest is expanding, the breasts are enlarging, the skin is becoming more delicate and rosy, the hips are growing broader, the hair is growing thicker, longer and more glossy, and the voice is developing richer tones. With all these physical changes that are taking place, the mental and moral natures are changing as well. The girl will now take a keener interest in society, and in mental and moral matters. These changes show that the developing sex life is making a woman of the girl.

=The charms of womanhood.=--This new life is making her attractive, lovable, sociable, brilliant and attractive. This new life adds very much to the natural charms of a girl, making the naturally beautiful girl more beautiful and the homely girl more attractive. The girl with a “doll face,” and weak in her sexual nature, will not be as attractive as the more homely girl whose normal sexual life has given her these personal charms of a healthy, strong womanhood.

When you see or feel the first signs of this change, consult your mamma, and she will give you directions and advice about how to care for your person during the menses. This is a perfectly natural experience that all girls have. It indicates that the special organs are developing and preparing for motherhood. Menstruation is not a disease; it is a natural function. Girls should be proud of this new accession to their girlhood. Health, happiness, and beauty of womanhood and the sacred function of motherhood, which will one day declare them the sweetest and holiest of God’s creatures are vitally related to this function. Girls with perfect health, who are usefully and happily employed, who entertain no base ideas of this function and who pay no special attention to it, experience little or no pain and little flow.

=Meaning of menstruation.=--Ovulation and menstruation usually occur about the same time. Ovulation consists in the formation of an ovum or egg by one of the ovaries once a month. Without the formation of the ovum motherhood would not be possible. Menstruation consists of a flow of bloody mucus formed by the velvety lining of the womb. This has the effect of purifying a woman’s blood and preparing the womb to receive the ovum. After this change first takes place several years will be required before she is old enough to marry and raise a family. Until she is married, the ovum each month lingers in the womb a few days and then passes out. When she is married, if she and her husband are strong and healthy, at the close of some menstrual period a cell from the husband will unite with one of these little eggs, which will become attached to the velvety walls of the womb, the door to the womb will close, and this beginning life will grow for two hundred and eighty days, when the door of the womb will open and a little baby will be born into the home.