The Eugenic Marriage, Volume I. | Page 7

or excessive
flow of saliva--Vaginal discharge, or leucorrhea--Importance of testing
urine during pregnancy--Attention to nipples and breasts--The vagaries
of pregnancy--Contact with infectious diseases--Avoidance of
drugs--The danger signals of pregnancy ... PAGE 75
CHAPTER VIII
THE MANAGEMENT OF LABOR
When to send for the physician in confinement cases--The preparation
of the patient--The beginning of labor--The first pains--The meaning of
the term "labor"--Length of the first stage of labor--What the first stage
of [xvii] labor means--What the second stage of labor means--Length
of the second stage--Duration of the first confinement--Duration of
subsequent confinements--Conduct of patient during second stage of
labor--What a labor pain means--How a willful woman can prolong
labor--Management of actual birth of child--Position of woman during
birth of child--Duty of nurse immediately following birth of
child--Expulsion of after-birth--How to expel after-birth--Cutting the
cord--Washing the baby's eyes immediately after birth--What to do
with baby immediately after birth--Conduct immediately after
labor--After pains--Rest and quiet after labor--Position of patient after
labor--The Lochia--The events of the following day--The first breakfast
after confinement--The importance of emptying the bladder after
labor--How to effect a movement of the bowels after labor--Instructing
the nurse in details--Douching after labor--How to give a
douche--"Colostrum," its uses--Advantages of putting baby to breast
early after labor--The first lunch--The first dinner--Diet after third

day ... PAGE 93
CHAPTER IX
CONFINEMENT INCIDENTS
Regarding the dread and fear of childbirth--The woman who dreads
childbirth--Regarding the use of anesthetics in confinements--The
presence of friends and relatives in the confinement chamber--How
long should a woman stay in bed after confinement--Why do
physicians permit women to get out of bed before the womb is back in
its proper place?--Lacerations, their meaning, and their
significance--The advantage of an examination six weeks after the
confinement--The physician who does not tell all of the truth ... PAGE
111
CHAPTER X
NURSING MOTHERS
The diet of nursing mothers--Care of the nipples--Cracked
nipples--Tender nipples--Mastitis in nursing mothers--Inflammation of
the breasts--When should a child be weaned?--Method of
weaning--Nursing while menstruating--Care of breasts while weaning
child--Nervous nursing mothers--Birthmarks--Qualifications of a
nursery maid ... PAGE 121
CHAPTER XI
CONVALESCING AFTER CONFINEMENT
The second critical period in the young wife's life--The domestic
problem following the first confinement ... PAGE 131
* * * * *
[xix] INTRODUCTION

Despite the fact that much has been written during the past two or three
years with reference to Eugenics, it is quite evident to any one
interested in the subject that the average intelligent individual knows
very little about it so far as its scope and intent are concerned. This is
not to be wondered at, for the subject has not been presented to the
ordinary reader in a form that would tend to encourage inquiry or
honest investigation. The critic and the wit have deliberately
misinterpreted its principles, and have almost succeeded in masking its
supreme function in the garb of folly.
The writer has yet to meet a conscientious mother who fails to evince a
reasonable degree of enthusiastic interest in eugenics when properly
informed of its fundamental principles.
The eugenic ideal is a worthy race--a race of men and women
physically and mentally capable of self-support. The eugenist, therefore,
demands that every child born shall be a worthy child--a child born of
healthy, selected parents.
No one can successfully assail the ethics of this appeal. It is morally a
just contention to strive for a healthy race. It is also an economic
necessity as we shall see.
The history of the world informs us that there have been many
civilizations which, in some respects, equalled our own. These races of
people have all achieved a certain success, and have then passed
entirely out of existence. Why? And are we destined to extinction in the
same way? We know that the cause of the decline and ultimate
extinction of all past civilizations was due primarily to the moral
decadence of their people. Disease and vice gradually sapped their
vitality, and their continuance was impossible. [xx] It would seem to be
the destiny of a race to achieve material prosperity at the expense of its
morality. When conditions render possible the fulfilment of every
human desire, the race exhausts its vitality in a surfeitment of caprice.
The animal instincts predominate, and the potential vigor of the people
is exhausted in contributing to its own amusement. Each succeeding
civilization has reached this epochal period, and has fallen, victim of
the rapacity of stronger and younger invading antagonists, themselves

to succumb to the same insidious process.
The present civilization has reached this epochal--this transition--period.
In one hundred years from now we shall either have accomplished what
no previous civilization accomplished, or we shall have ceased to exist
as a race. Our success depends on the response of the people to the
eugenic appeal. Few appreciate the responsibility involved.
It is not necessary, however, to