a few weeks ago jeremy and i found this gem of a pregnancy book at a thrift store for $1. so worth the price! it is the third edition of a book called "expectant motherhood" updated and printed in 1957 (the first edition was published in 1940.) it has some solid pregnancy advice that still resonates 50 years later. (sarcasm is hard to type!) as i make my way through the 198 pages, i will share some choice excerpts with you! page 1 of chapter 1 sets the stage and reminds us whippersnappers how much medicine has evolved...
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"even the most careful examination will rarely reveal clear-cut evidence of pregnancy until two menstrual periods have been missed, and occasionally the diagnosis may remain uncertain for a longer time. The physician bases his decision on three main types of evidence: the patient's observation, the physical examination and, in some instances on laboratory tests."
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No pee-on-a-stick home pregnancy tests that work days before your first missed period back then! but it gets better. later in the same chapter, describing the laboratory tests referenced above...
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"Since the very dawn of civilization efforts have been made to devise a satisfactory test for pregnancy. The priest-physicians of ancient Egypt, in the earliest writings handed down to us, tell of a test then in vogue based on the seeming ability of pregnancy urine to stimulate the growth of wheat and barley seeds; the itinerant physicians of classical Greece employed similar tests, while during the Middle Ages the omniscient physician merely gazed at the urine and in this way claimed to be able to diagnosticate not only pregnancy but many other conditions. Today, thanks to the studies of two German doctors, Aschheim and Zondek, we have at last a sound and trustworthy test for pregnancy and interestingly enough it is performed, like the tests of old on urine. In carrying out the test a small quantity of morning urine is injected into a mouse or rabbit. If the urine comes from a pregnant woman, definite and characteristic changes are produced in the ovaries of the animal within forty-eight or seventy-two hours; if the person is not pregnant no alterations whatsoever occur. The test is accurate in about 95 per cent of cases and in the presence of pregnancy will yield a positive reaction two weeks after the first missed menstrual period, sometimes earlier. It is expensive, however, quite unnecessary in most cases, and is generally performed only when the physician finds some medical reason for haste in making the diagnosis."
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wow. with that, we end chapter 1. stay tuned for more really current pregnancy advice!
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