The law of population : its consequences and its bearing upon human conduct and morals / by Annie Besant.

  • Besant, Annie, 1847-1933.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The law of population : its consequences and its bearing upon human conduct and morals / by Annie Besant. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    often recommended only to visit his wife immediately after the cessation of the Catemenia. Since women conceive more easily at this period, the avoidance of sexual inter¬ course during the few days before and after menstruation has been recommended as a preventive check. Dr. Tyler Smith writes : “ In the middle of the interval between the periods, there is little chance of impregnation taking place. The same kind of knowledge is of use, by way of caution, to women who menstruate during lactation, in whom there is a great aptitude to conceive; pregnancy, under such circumstances, would be injurious to the health of the foetus, the. child at the breast, and the mother herself, and therefore should be avoided, if possible.3’ The most serious objection to reliance on this check is that it is not certain. M. Kaciborski says that only six or seven per cent, of conceptions take place during this interval, but the six or seven exceptions to the general rule prevent recom¬ mendation of the check as thoroughly reliable; we can scarcely say more than that women are far less likely to conceive midway between the menstrual periods than either immediately before or after them. There is a preventive check attempted by many poor women which is most detrimental to health, and should therefore never be employed, namely the too-long persist¬ ence in nursing one baby, in the hope of thereby prevent¬ ing the conception of another. Nursing does not prevent conception. A child should not be nursed, according to Dr. Chavasse, for longer than nine months ; and he quotes Dr. Farr, as follows: “It is generally recognised that the healthiest children are those weaned at nine months com¬ plete. Prolonged nursing hurts both child and mother: in the child, causing a tendency to brain disease, pro¬ bably through disordered digestion and nutrition; in the mother, causing a'strong tendency to deafness and blindness.” Dr. Chavasse adds : “ If he be suckled after he be twelve months old, he is generally pale, flabby, un¬ healthy, and rickety; and the mother usually nervous, emaciated, and hysterical .... A child nursed beyond twelve months is very apt, if he should live, to be knock- kneed, and bow-legged, and weak-ankled, to be narrow- chested, and chicken-breasted.” If pregnancy occur, and the mother be nursing, the consequences affect alike the mother, the babe, and the unborn child. To nurse under these cir¬ cumstances, says Dr. Chavasse, “ is highly improper, audit