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considered the inevitable accompaniment of a perfectly natural
phenomenon, only to be relieved by "twilight sleep," gas and air
analgesia or full anaesthesia. Over the past few years it has
become recognised that in normal cases the underlying cause of
most women's suffering is fear—fear of the unknown, and as occurs
throughout the animal kingdom, the response of the human body
to fear is tension, or the simultaneous contraction of all muscles.
The result of such tension is not only to delay the passage of the
baby through the birth canal, but also to exhaust the woman
through prolonged and unproductive physical effort.
With the aim and object of overcoming this state of tension,
the clinics in Ealing have for the past eighteen months held classes
for women expecting their first babies. At these classes the
women are taught how to achieve complete relaxation at will.
They also perform to music certain exercises which have been
evolved to develop those muscles which will be used to bring the
baby into the world. The mothers are also given talks on diet,
hygiene and clothing during pregnancy, the care of a young infant,
and also the three stages of labour are explained with the aid of
diagrams.
There are at present three "exercise" classes held each week
in the Borough, two at the Mattock Lane Clinic and one at the
Cherington House Clinic, and it is expected that one will start
at Ravenor Park Clinic as soon as a proposed extension to the
premises is completed.
The expectant mother attends for one session each week from
the third or fourth month of pregnancy onwards until the time she
goes into labour, and she is advised to perform the exercises and
to practice relaxation at home daily.
Over 100 expectant mothers who have attended the class have
now been confined and many letters of appreciation have been
received from them.
Talks on mothercraft are also given to expectant mothers at
other clinics where through lack of room or equipment, there is
no exercise class.
During the last two months of pregnancy every expectant
mother is given instruction in the technique of breast massage.
She is asked to practice this daily to express the colostrum, which
is a fluid formed in the breasts towards the end of pregnancy and
before the milk comes in on the second-third day after delivery.
This practice has for long been in operation at the Mothers'
and Babies' Hospital, Woolwich. Noting the very excellent results
as regards breast feeding that they claim to have obtained there,
we invited Dr. Waller, paediatrician to the hospital, to address