CHAPTER XXXI

THE MIRACLE OF MOTHERHOOD

=Sublime miracle of motherhood.=--My talks to you would not be complete without a study of the sublime miracle of motherhood, the creation of a new life. It is no wonder that motherhood, in all ages and by the great of all nations, has been treated with due respect and reverence.

=Ovulation.=--In this talk we shall begin with the beginning of life and trace life’s development up to birth. The formation of an egg, or ovum, by one of the ovaries once every twenty-eight days is called ovulation. When the ovum matures it breaks through the membrane of the ovary and the little muscular fingers of the oviduct, on that side, take up the ovum and convey it to the womb. This usually takes place during menstruation and the egg enters the womb near the cessation of the flow. Sometimes the egg may reach the womb before menstruation begins. It is possible for an egg to form at any time between periods of menstruation, but this is of unusual occurrence.

=Impregnation.=--If, in either of these events, the husband and wife, being both of matured age, vigorous,

healthy and strong, engage in the reproductive act, the wife will conceive. When one of the sperm cells of the husband unites with the germ cell or egg of the wife, conception or impregnation takes place. This is the beginning of life, the creative moment of a new life, a new being. It is at this creative moment that an immortal soul is started upon its eternal voyage, nine months before it makes its visible appearance in the world.

=All life begins with a cell.=--Every living being begins life as a single cell of protoplasm. The cell from which a child is formed is produced by the union of two cells, the germ cell of the mother and the sperm cell of the father. The germ cell is much larger than the sperm cell. At the point where the sperm cell enters the ovum a new cell is formed. This new cell is the beginning of a new life and is called the embryo. The embryo receives its nourishment for several days from the food material stored up in the ovum.

When the sperm cell fuses with this minute ovum, 1-120th of an inch in diameter, the ovum becomes attached to the velvety inner surface of the womb. At this point of the womb the mucous membrane begins a rapid growth and in a very few hours has enveloped the ovum.

=What takes place the first twenty-four hours.=--In the rapidly growing ovum marvelous processes are going on. In part the physical processes have been studied. The vital and psychical processes that are taking place, far more wonderful than the physical, cannot be understood or comprehended by mortal man. So rapidly has the embryonic cell divided itself into two cells, these two into four cells, and these into eight, then into sixteen, until many thousand cells have been produced in the first twenty-four hours.

=The first thirty days.=--During the next thirty days this multiplication of cells by division goes on rapidly. The embryo is now receiving life, air, water and nourishment from the mother through the rudimentary beginning of the placenta. The placenta when developed is a membrane composed largely of blood vessels, entirely surrounding the embryo and is attached to the womb near the top. At this point the umbilical cord, which connects with the child at a point called the navel, merges into and becomes a part of the placenta. These thousands of cells, under the control of some invisible agency or law within the mother and the embryo, begin to arrange themselves in layers and groups. In this way the rudimentary organs one by one, step by step, begin to form. At the end of the first thirty days the embryo is about one inch long and one-fourth of an inch in diameter. At this time it has no resemblance to a human being. Separate from all connection with the mother, no scientist could tell whether it is the embryo of a rat, a rabbit, a dog or a human being. It is this resident physical, mental and soul-life received from its parents that will determine for it a human body.

=The second thirty days.=--During the next thirty days, new cells will be produced rapidly, new organs will be started, other organs will take on more definite form and the embryo will be many times larger and will have a very distinct resemblance to a human being. During the latter part of the second month this human embryo will possess a very distinct appendage resembling a tail; the neck will be nearly as large around as the body; the arms and legs, fingers and toes, ears, eyes, nose and mouth will all be quite distinct, and the head will appear overgrown. The embryo at the close of the second month will be about four inches in length and one and one-half inches in diameter.

=The relations between the mother and the embryo.=--The little embryo has projecting from its body, at the point called the navel, a large cord, larger around than one of its legs. This cord is called the umbilical cord and connects the embryo with the upper part of the womb. Here the cord seems to branch out and to form a rather thick membrane which entirely surrounds the embryo. Where the umbilical cord connects with the womb there are thousands of small blood vessels. Here the blood of the mother bathes the blood vessels of the umbilical cord. In this way the embryo absorbs from the mother’s blood the materials from which its bones, muscles, brain, nerves and spinal cord are built. In this way the blood of the mother furnishes her forming child pure oxygen. In this way also the mother is furnishing the embryo with life--physical, mental and spirit life. Here, too, she gives it joyous or sorrowful thoughts, a good or bad disposition, a frail or strong constitution, mental brilliancy or mental dullness, and influences its character in many ways before it sees the light of day.

=The order of special maternal attention.=--During the first three and four months the mother should breathe the purest air, drink the purest water and eat plenty of wholesome, nutritious food. The physical health, strength and perfect development of the child’s body are largely determined during these months. During the fifth and sixth months the nervous system, including the brain centers, is being organized and developed. Attention to mental exercise during these months and the months following will influence the child favorably in after-life. The moral nature of the child is more largely influenced by the mother during the eighth and ninth months than during the previous months. This indicates roughly the order of special attention that should be given by the mother to her forming child.

=Symptoms of impregnation.=--After impregnation has taken place and the days and months pass by, certain signs appear which tell her that she is to become a mother. The menses stop, the breasts enlarge, a dark color appears about the nipples, the abdomen enlarges and about the fourth month she feels the distinct movements of the fetus. This movement is called fetal life. However, life existed in the embryo from the beginning. Feeling the movements of the fetus only indicates that the fetus has grown to where it has strength enough to make its presence known.

=Birth.=--At the end of two hundred and eighty long days, nine full months, three-fourths of a year, the strong muscles of the womb contract, and all the muscles of the abdominal and pelvic cavities are called into action to expel the child from its maternal cradle or home.

All of nature’s maternal processes, from the initial of life in the tiny egg, through all the mysterious and interesting changes of embryonic and fetal development, until the babe is easily and quickly conveyed by muscular energy from its warm, cozy, maternal abode and introduced to a world of independent life and activity, are a sublime miracle--the miracle of motherhood.

=The maternal instinct.=--The maternal instinct is inherent in every normal girl. It is this maternal nature that prompts little girls to play with their dolls and with childish glee and innocent sincerity to organize their doll families into beautiful imitation of real life. The natural desire of every girl, as she matures during the years of adolescence, is that she may one day become a mother.

=A perfect body essential to ideal motherhood.=--The beautiful ideals of wifehood and the sacred ideals of motherhood can come in their fullness only to those who make themselves worthy. The broad-minded, sensible girl will not bind her young growing figure with a corset, pinch her undeveloped feet by wearing tight, high-heeled shoes, ruin her neck with high, stiff collars, expose her shoulders and bosom to the varying changes of temperature by wearing low-necked dresses, ruin her health and throttle her mind and soul in a cradle of ignorance.

=The independent girl.=--All girls should qualify themselves for some vocation, aside from marriage. The girl who stays at home and has nothing to do but dress and primp and wait for some man to come along and marry her is likely to develop into a flippant, extravagant social nonentity. The girl who qualifies herself for some vocation will not be a burden to her parents. She will learn the value of money, will acquire self-confidence and personal dignity, will multiply the red corpuscles in her blood, and thus be able to give her hand and heart to her coming prince with the knowledge that she is quite capable of entering upon the new duties of home-building.

=All girls should have training for motherhood.=--But whatever be the place or position to which you may aspire, you should also seek the training necessary to ideal motherhood. Your mother instinct calls for plenty of roomy quarters for the fetus. It is the mother instinct that demands open-air athletics, free chest expansion and a correct poise and carriage of body. It is the mother love that calls for books and magazines that give special articles on courtship, marriage and the sacred mission of motherhood.