More essays of love and virtue / by Havelock Ellis.

  • Ellis, Havelock, 1859-1939.
Date:
1931
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: More essays of love and virtue / by Havelock Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE NEW MOTHER g It has of course to be realised that children may react in various ways that cannot always be foretold, but of necessity they are largely affected by the way in which the revelation comes to them. Dr. G. V. Hamilton in his elaborate Research in Marriage, among 200 men and women of superior character and ability, found that 37 per cent, of the men and 29 per cent, of the women felt proud and gratified when their curiosity about sex matters was first satisfied; 20 per cent, of the men and 17 per cent, of the women accepted it as a mere matter of fact ; there were also as many as 23 per cent, of the men and 31 per cent, of the women who were unnecessarily shocked and repelled by the unfortunate way in which the revelation came. The subject was investigated also by Dr. Katharine B. Davis among one thousand married women of much above the average in education and of an average age of 38, so that their youth belonged to a period when the new mother had not yet arrived. They were asked to answer the question : Had you been at all adequately prepared by instruction for the sex side of marriage ? To this 55-8 per cent, replied that they had. But many of these affirmative answers revealed how inadequate were the notions concerning adequate pre¬ paration. Some thought a knowledge of