=Sexual intercourse= is distasteful to most pregnant women, but sometimes the inclination is intensified.
Coitus often causes much pelvic discomfort and may be an influential factor in producing abortion. It should be forbidden during the early months, at all menstrual epochs, and for at least two weeks before labor. The uterus may be infected by germs beneath the foreskin and hæmorrhage may follow the act if the placenta is low. In healthy persons, at the instance of the female, intercourse in moderation is permissible.
=The mental condition= should be placid without either excitement or fatigue. Anxiety should be dissipated by cheerful company and surroundings. Judicious amusement is desirable and a congenial occupation, but neighbors who tell frightful tales of disaster in labor, or nurses who relate the details of their critical cases, are equally to be avoided.
Many women of neurotic temperament dread the labor desperately. They are sure that death impends and they dwell with tragic interest on the stories of complicated cases related by thoughtless or malicious neighbors. The nurse can do much to allay these apprehensions by cheerfulness, optimism, and gentleness. Her buoyant temperament will drive away the patient’s fears just as effectively as the assurances of the physician.
Great allowances must be made for attacks of irritability, for the changes going on in the woman’s pelvis keep her in a capricious and whimsical condition. A good book to read at this time is, the “Prospective Mother,” by Slemons.
=The subject of maternal impressions= is the cause of much anxiety during pregnancy. It is safe to assure the mother that it is nearly impossible to mark her child by emotional stress. There is no demonstrable nervous communication between mother and child, and most of the deformities that occur and are attributable to shock, etc., can be explained by our knowledge of intrauterine changes. Furthermore, the same deformities occur in lower animals, to which it is difficult to ascribe such high nervous organization.
Many of the birthmarks, supposedly due to shock, occur too late in the pregnancy to affect the child, even if it were possible, for the child is completely formed before the fourteenth week.