Pregnancy and Parturition from a Woman’s Point of View*

Pregnancy and parturition from a woman's point of view may seem a superfluous venture on author's part, yet there is a side to this subject that lies in shadow on which he hopes future investigation will throw more light. Disease and death are inevitable. Yet death as the result of pregnancy may be placed, as a rule, in the category of preventable causes. Ninety-five out of every hundred women are ignorant of the physiological conditions of pregnancy and parturition and are possessed with exaggerated ideas of the possible pathological condition incident to the condition. Pregnancy and parturition ought to be in the natural ordering of things, a simple physiological process. On the whole, much that is distressing and painful in the pregnant state may be eliminated and prove a prophylactic in the parturient condition. The need of a better understanding of the causes of the pathological conditions accompanying so large a proportion of pregnant cases.