PRENATAL CARE.
It is commonly believed that a pregnant woman must eat for two. The wise
woman will not increase her food intake. If she is not up to par
physically at the time of conception she will generally find it
advantageous to decrease the food allowance.
A healthy baby should not weigh to exceed six, or at most seven, pounds
at birth. Five pounds would be better. It does not take much food to
nourish an infant of that weight, and the baby does not weigh that much
until shortly before birth. Most of the food is used for fuel but the
amount of fuel required to heat a baby that is kept warm within the
mother's body is almost negligible.
One of the first and most important requisites for having healthy
children is to avoid the eating-for-two fallacy. Most people overeat,
anyway, and there should be no encouragement in this line.
The results of overeating are many and serious. The mother grows too
heavy or else she becomes dyspeptic. Overeating and partaking of food of
poor quality are the chief causes of the ills of pregnancy. Prospective
mothers can be comfortable. Pregnancy and childbirth are physiological.
Normal women suffer very little inconvenience or pain.
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