Sex efficiency through exercises : special physical culture for women / by Th. H. van de Velde ; [photos, by E. Steinemann].
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confined the subject-matter of the present book to gym- nastics, and mainly to a highly specialised and limited form of gymnastics, and omitted mention of games and athletic sports both as irrelevant and as far too wide a subject for treatment in the space and time at my disposal, Kiistner's remarks might be perfectly applicable to gymnastics as well as sports, and deserve to be known and heeded by my readers. Kiistner answers the question embodied in his title as follows :— " We must differentiate between two categories of women. The first group have taken active and frequent part in sports and games before they became pregnant; the second group have taken little or none. A woman who is thoroughly habituated to athletic sport will find it very difficult to refrain wholly during pregnancy, and it would be a great and harsh deprivation and possibly even detrimental to her mental and bodily health were all such activities strictly forbidden her as soon as we knew she was pregnant. For such women, in the first three months, I permit games and sports except on the days when the menstrual period would be normally due. For, at these critical days, strong bodily vibrations may cause haemorrhage and even miscarriages, as has been indisputably observed and recorded. At other times, a moderate athletic activity, without strain—such as swimming for example *—is thoroughly beneficial and pre- serves elasticity and muscular tone. And, I am of opinion that there is no greater risk for mother or child between the third month and the sixth. After the sixth month, all exercises entailing tension of the abdominal muscles should be ruled out. I have certainly met women patients whose muscular tone and gymnastic training permitted them to do trunk exercises in late stages of gestation, such as many unpractised women could not have performed in their normal state of health, but there is always the risk of premature rupture of the fcetal membranes, of placenta pyemia, or other serious complications. * With exception of such cases in which there is imperfect action of the sphincter muscles of the vagina, for then the water containing possibly- dangerous micro-organisms can flow into the vagina.