CHAPTER XXVI - HEALTH AT BIRTH

Abstract

This chapter discusses the health of a baby at the time of birth. It also discusses the process of birth in Asia. Births in Java are usually quick and successful; one often sees the young mother with her child go to the river to cleanse her and her clothes half an hour after the birth. The Annamite women in Cochin China are said to be of different build as regards the organs connected with birth from the European woman, and the child comes into the world as if through a hole made in a plate. In Egypt, weakened urban women often suffer severely in childbirth, and need skilled help; they often die also during delivery. These troubles among Egyptian women are probably mainly because of the fact that they marry too young, that is, at the age of 11–3 years.