Sex efficiency through exercises : special physical culture for women / by Th. H. van de Velde ; [photos, by E. Steinemann].
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omitted in the anxiety, pain and disablement of the occasion —as still happens far too often—it should be much easier to follow them if the woman has learnt to breathe adequately and control and co-ordinate her muscles. For these are the main points : not to exercise deliberate downward pressure before it is necessary; to apply this voluntary pressure at the right moment and to avoid strain on the lungs by carefully alternating deep breaths ; to relax muscles fully during the respites between pains ; not to hasten the un- avoidable final distension of the pelvic floor by voluntary contractile effort in excess of the local elasticity; and finally, to manage the emergence of the child's head slowly and without the shock of a rending laceration : all these are possible, but only to women whose minds, wills and muscles are trained to efficiency and control. For this we need a general and thorough physical culture, adapted to the structure and the functions of women, and including, of course, breathing exercises. And this primary physical culture should be reinforced by the special pelvic exercises described in my previous chapters. The direct pelvic action on parturition centres in one exercise in particular, i.e., that exercise which we have described under No. 19 in our list (Film 12, Figs 12 and 13). The movements beginning with Watchers suspension have great advantages in other respects, but are, first and foremost, a preparation for giving birth. During pregnancy the pelvic articulations are loosened and become more supple, though only to a slight degree. This fact is utilised in Exercise 19 thus : in the first phase (Watcher's suspension) the backward movement of the somewhat salient upper rim of the sacrum (the so-called promontory) enlarges the upper pelvic outlet in its measurement from front to back [i.e., from the promon- tory to the upper edge of the symphysis pubis), which is most important for the emergence of the child's head. This same posture, however, diminishes the lateral diameter of the lower pelvic outlet—between the inner surfaces of the tubera ischii, which is the most important in obstetrical practice. In the flexed phase the conditions are exactly