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SECOND SECTION
EXERCISES DURING PREGNANCY
AND AFTER CHILD-BIRTH
CHAPTER XI
INTRODUCTION
The visible and partly voluntary reproductive function
in man is confined to the act of coition. In woman this
function is fourfold : it includes two acts : coition and birth ;
and two processes or conditions of continuous change :
pregnancy and involution after child-birth, or the puerperium.
We have dealt with the effect of voluntary pelvic exercise
on coitus and birth : we shall now consider pregnancy and
the puerperium from the same aspect.
In pregnancy there is a steady organic crescendo ; expan-
sion, proliferation, culminating in birth. This crescendo is
both genital and general. There follows involution, or
return to the non-pregnant norm : an ebb or diminuendo
after the vital flood.
But both allied yet opposite processes need the same
methods of physical culture, combining exercise with great
care. Thus, many of the following exercises may be used
with benefit for both the pregnant and the puerperal state,
always provided that due care is observed.
The most appropriate basis for these exercises is, in my
opinion, the Swedish system. Here the movements combine
activity and passivity, and may be adapted and accentuated
in either direction and slightly or extremely at will.
Some time ago I was in the habit of recommending
exercises of this kind to my patients, but my instructions
were not sufficiently co-ordinated into a system. I am
