ABSTRACT
We have seen that in traditional societies abortion had not only causes but also purposes: goals that related to something more than the simple elimination of the foetus, as in the case of the interruption of a woman’s first pregnancy to facilitate the next. We find such a practice superstitious, but still it shows an analogy to events that take place naturally, without intentional intervention. Any number of cases of a spontaneous miscarriage during a first pregnancy, followed by a pregnancy that goes to term without complications, give the impression that the first pregnancy was a kind of psychic preparation, a test, as though to make certain of the fertility of the terrain. Such spontaneous miscarriages are sometimes followed by the achievement of a greater level of awareness on the part of the two partners, allowing each of them to come to terms with doubts and ambivalent feelings.
