WHERE BABY GIRLS COME FROM
“Now, mumsey,” cried Elsie
the next day, running to her mother at the hour set
aside for their baby-talks, “I know what comes
next it’s I, isn’t it?”
“Yes, darling, it’s you.
And it’s I, too. Isn’t that a beautiful
thought, that you and I held the same relation to each
other that the mother bird holds to the egg from which
the birdies come! For once you were a tiny, tiny
egg inside mamma just as it was with the birds.”
“Oh-h!” gasped Elsie,
gazing at her mother in bewilderment. She could
not realize such an astounding thing at once.
“Yes, darling,” Mrs. Edson
went on, “every female human being has an ovary,
just as every female flower has, and just as every
female bird has; and, also like them, she has seeds
or eggs in this ovary. And she has a great many
of them. They have been growing within her ever
since she was a baby, and when she is about twelve
years old they begin to ripen, one at a time, and
pass from the ovary into a nest that is all ready
for them inside the female body. This nest we
call the womb. At first, while she is so young,
the womb is not strong enough to hold the egg while
it grows, so the egg soon leaves its nest to come into
the world and be lost, as so very many seeds of the
plant are. As it does so it acts in such a way
on the young girl that, when she first becomes aware
that something which seems strange is happening to
her, she is frightened and does not know what to do.
And as you, darling, are now at the age when this
must come to you very soon, I am going to prepare
you for it, so that you may know that it is natural,
coming to all girls of about your age, and that there
is nothing to be alarmed over. All the talks
that we have had were intended as a kind of introduction
to this event and its consequences, for it is the
greatest that enters a girl’s life before she
has grown fully to be a woman. And you were once
one of these tiny eggs. More than that, you now
have within your body, a great number of that very
kind of eggs from which you sprang.”
Elsie sat with her eyes in breathless
interest on her mother, so filled with wonder and
speculation that she could not ask a single question.
Mrs. Edson proceeded:
“I must repeat dear, because
it is so very important for you to remember, that
every woman has an ovary which contains many seeds
or eggs, just as the female flower has. These
eggs, if left unfertilized, will pass from the body
and never grow any more. But each one, if fertilized
by the papa, as the bird’s eggs were, and as
the flower seeds were, will stay in a little nook
inside the mother’s body, where it will grow
and grow until the time comes for it to burst forth
into the world, following the same principle that
the first cell followed in reproducing, and which
all living things follow always. The life within
forces it away from the parent, to become a separate
growth. Then it will come forth, and behold,
the tiny seed or egg has grown to be a baby girl or
boy, weighing several pounds!”
“Oh-h!” Elsie gasped again.
“And that is how how I came
to be born, mamma!”
“Yes, darlingest, it is the
way in which every living person was born. There
is not, and there cannot be, any other way. Each
child is a part both of its father and mother.
The egg in the mother would never grow into a baby
unless it had first been fertilized by the father,
who does so through his great love for the mamma,
just as with the birds and animals, though his love
is of a higher kind than that of the lower orders.”
“And does the mother-woman warm
the eggs as the bird in the nest does, mamma, while
the papa-man brings her nice things to eat?”
“Yes, dearie, only the mother-woman
has the nest inside her body, as I have said, and
she keeps the little one safe and warm there much
longer than the bird sits on her nest. And think
of all the years after the baby is born that she waits
on and cares for it! There is no other love that
equals in devotion that of the mother.”
Elsie, without a word, her eyes swimming
in tears, kissed her mother affectionately. She
had realized a little more of what she owed to her.
“Now,” said Mrs. Edson,
“I must tell you how to care for this nest in
which, by and by, when you have grown up and have a
husband and are strong enough, you will be keeping
a little baby of your own. Because many girls
who become married do not know these things there is
a dreadful amount of sickness and misery in the world,
all needless. And it does seem too bad when
merely a few words at the right time would have saved
it all!”
Of course Elsie was not old enough
to understand how this could be, so she said nothing,
but sat looking earnestly at her mother as she went
on:
“In the first place, dear, you
must know that the little baby’s nest, which
we call the womb, is placed in the lower portion of
the woman’s body, just above the ‘private
parts’. Perhaps it is put there because
it is the safest place for it in the whole body for
the eggs and womb are very delicate, and must not
be exposed to any danger of injury. So it grows
in the interior of the trunk, where outside dangers
would be less likely to reach and spoil it, so that
the woman would be sick all her life and never have
any children. Many hopeless female complaints,
ending with premature and painful death, are caused
by lack of proper care of the womb and its entrance.
That care consists chiefly in preventing the womb
from being touched by anything, and keeping the entrance
clean. It is very simple just keep
the entrance clean and the womb untouched by anything.
An observance of such slight rules as these would
have saved many and many a poor soul from a life of
continual misery and suffering.
“I have told you, dear, long
ago how to keep the entrance clean. And now that
you will soon begin to menstruate, as the passing out
of the eggs is called, I shall have but little to
add to what you already know, but I will repeat it
from the beginning in order that you may have it all
clear in your mind.
“First, bathe the entrance every
time you bathe the rest of your body, and at such
other times as you may feel the need of doing so.
Never neglect this. It may have evil consequences.
Just keep it clean, and never touch it for any other
purpose. And be careful to use only your own
towels, for disease is easily communicated to these
parts by cloths that are not clean, and you never
can be too careful in this respect. It is plain
enough, and easy enough to do, isn’t it darling and
you will always remember about it, won’t you?”
“Oh, yes, mamma, that is easy
enough!” Elsie said quickly. “I could
remember a lot more than that, I’m sure.”
“It would have been so infinitely
much better for so many poor sick creatures if they
had known and remembered even that!” Mrs. Edson
sighed, holding her little daughter closely, as if
she would protect her from not only that harm but
all others. “But,” she continued,
“I must now tell you what you may be expecting
to come to you before long, when it will be harder
to keep the entrance clean than it has been so far,
and when to keep it clean will be more necessary than
ever.
“Every twenty-eight days, dearie,
beginning with you very soon now, there will be a
flow of blood into the little baby’s nest, the
womb, and this will come out of your body through
this entrance to the womb. As soon as you see
any signs of it on your body or clothing you must
come right and tell me, as you would if you had cut
your finger or stubbed your toe on a stone. It
is something to be very proud of for it shows the
possibility of motherhood, and it must be given the
very best care, which is, as I have said, chiefly
to keep the parts clean. By and by when you are
grown old enough and strong enough, and have a husband,
who will fertilize the eggs, one of them will grow
into a little baby, but it will be a long time yet
before that can be, and until then you will have this
flow every twenty-eight days, for the sake of your
health. This brings more work for the womb to
do, while the menses, as they are called, continue,
and therefore you may feel out of sorts both mentally
and bodily for two or three days. But this will
pass away when the flow ceases, and if proper care
is taken of the womb and passages you will never feel
anything worse than this. Some women feel great
pain at this time, but almost always the reason is
that some of their internal parts have been injured
in one way or another. Sometimes lack of proper
food, sufficient fresh air and sun, or not enough
exercise and clean water are responsible for a portion
of the pain. In order to have strong reproductive
organs a woman should be healthy in all bodily ways,
and anything that she can do to improve her general
health will be favorable to her at the time of the
menses as well as at all times. Do you think you
understand all this, darling, and can remember it?”
“I don’t know, mamma,”
said Elsie hesitatingly. “There is a lot
to it, but I’ll try.”
“That is my dear little girl!
To try is the next thing to doing. Only remember
that when you don’t know what to do, and have
tried, come to mamma. That is one great reason
why mammas are to help little girls who
have tried.”
Elsie kissed her mother warmly, and
then sat looking dreamily out towards the woods.
She had learned many strange things and was thinking
them over. Suddenly she spoke, as if unconsciously,
saying: “Who would ever have thought that
so much could come out of it!”
“Out of what?” her mother asked.
“Why, out of a bee trying to step on my nose!”
said Elsie.