There are certain signs which a female is taught to regard as essential
evidences of pregnancy and it is supposed by most, if not by all women,
that their presence is absolutely necessary to the existence of this
state. In reference to one or two of these signs, this is far from the
fact; for they are not unfrequently absent, although pregnancy exist,
and the remainder may be present, although pregnancy be absent. Many a
female, I am confident, has, from this very circumstance, experienced
much difficulty in attaining certainty as to her state, and suffered
months of anxiety and doubt. This has arisen from a want of those clear
notions, and that precise information, which a question so important
demands.
The object of this chapter is to remove this difficulty, by presenting a
short account of those symptoms of conception which the female may
herself observe, and to point out to what extent they may be relied on.
It will be necessary to notice only _four_ of the signs or symptoms of
pregnancy, and they may be considered in the order in which they usually
arise; that is, ceasing to be unwell; morning sickness; shooting pains
through, enlargement of, and other changes of the breast; and, lastly,
quickening.
_Ceasing to be unwell._
The first symptom of pregnancy is the omission of that monthly return,
which, in female phraseology, would be described as “ceasing to be
unwell;” and it may be adopted as a general rule, that, in a healthy
woman, whose menstruation has been established, and continued regular,
and who is not nursing, “Conception is followed by a suppression of the
menstrual discharge at the next return of its period.” Thus, a female
may have been pregnant a week or two already; but she is not aware of it
till that period of the month arrives when she is accustomed to
menstruate, and then, when she expects to be unwell, she finds that she
is not so.