The thought for the child should commence with the first knowledge of
its coming birth. A tremendous control of self, and emotions, and
foolish habits, and a stern command of nerves should be the
prospective mother's constant effort, as science has proved that all
pre-natal influences have such powerful effect upon the child; and,
surely, if any woman stopped to think of the colossal responsibility
she has undertaken in having become the vehicle to bring a soul from
God to earth, she would at least try to employ as much intelligence in
the fulfilment of her obligation as she puts into succeeding in any of
the worldly pursuits in life. Think of the hours some women spend in
painful discipline by going through exercises to keep their figures
young and their faces beautiful--the massage! the cures! and the
"rests" they take to this end--but who let their waiting time for
motherhood be passed in a sort of relaxation of all control--getting
into tempers, indulging in nerves, over-smoking, or tiring themselves
out with excitement without one thought for the coming little one,
except as an inevitable necessity or a shocking nuisance. During this
period the wise woman ought to study such matters as heredity. She
ought to view the characteristics of her own and her husband's
families, and then firmly determine to counteract the objectionable
features in them by making her own mind dwell upon only good and fine
attributes for her child. She ought to try to keep herself in perfect
health by using common sense, and, above all, she should _determine_
to fight and conquer the nervous emotions which more or less beset all
women at such time. She ought to encourage happy and loving relations
with her husband, and try in every way to be in herself good and
gentle and brave. It is the most important moment in the whole of a
woman's life for self-discipline, because of the prodigious results of
all her moods and actions upon the child, and yet, as I said before,
it is one of the commonest sights to see a woman who at other times is
a very good sort of creature, simply letting herself go and becoming
an insupportable bore to her husband and the whole house, with her
perverseness and her nerves and her fads.
If they could analyse causes, what bitter reproaches many poor little
diseased, neurotic children might truly throw at their irresponsible
mothers for endowing them with these evils before birth.