Pregnancy is the successful union of the Sperm from man with the Egg (ovum) of women. Various early signs of pregnancy were long noted including swelling of the breast, lack of menstruation, and nausea or vomiting in the morning.

There are a number of mild conditions which typically affect women during Pregnancy, including Morning Sickness, Poor Appetite, Weakness, and Fluid Retention. These, if mild, are generally considered normal. Medicines may be used as given below.

More severe conditions during Pregnancy, such as Bleeding, Fever or an excessively active Fetus may be treated with medicines under Threatened Miscarriage. 

Signs of Conception

”Authors have left many Ways for Women to know whether they be with Child or not, which proves true indeed in many Women … Some of them I shall relate here”.

1. A Coldness and Chilliness of the outward parts after Conception; for the Heat retires inwardly to make the Conception.
2. The Belly grows very flat first of all because the Womb closes itself together , to
nourish and cherish the Seed.
3. The Breasts begin to swell and grow hard, not without Pain and Soreness,
4. The Tops of the Nipples look redder then formerly.
5. Wringing or griping pains like Cramps happen in the Belly about the Navel. ,
6. Loss of Appetite to Meat, and illness after Meat [food], and weakness of the Stomach.
7. The Veins of the Breasts are more clearly seen than they were wont to be.
8. It is a good Sign when the Veins in the Eyes are Clearly seen, and the Eyes seem something discoloured.
9. Diverse Longings and Appetites are ingendered.
10. If under the lower Eye-lid the Vein be swelled, and the Veins in the Eyes appear clearly, and the Eye something discoloured, if the Woman have not her Terms at that time … you may certainly conclude her to be with Child.” ()Hartman)

Pregnancy Tests

A number of traditional tests were used to confirm Pregnancy. Even though authors agreed these were not infallible, yet at least some of them appear to have offered a result better than a guess.
1. “Put the Urine of the Woman in a Glass and stop it, and let it stand three days, and then strain it through a fine Linen Cloth, if you find small living Creatures in it, she is most assuredly conceived with Child”.

2. “Take a green Nettle top, and put it into her Urine, and stop it close, and let it stand all Night, the next Morning take it out, and if it is full of red Spots, she is with Child, if not, the Nettle will be blackish”.
3. “Take Wild Mallows, or Marsh-Mallows and let the Woman piss upon ’em Three Days together, that is, once every Day, if you see that the said Mallows are dead the Woman has not conceived, but if the Mallows remain alive and frelh then she is with Child”. (Lemery)
4. “Take her Urine and put it in a Copper-pot, where imput a Piece of Iron filed bright all Night; if she be with Child you will see Red Spots, if not, it will become Black and Rudy”. (Lemery)

Signs of the Sex of the Child

Various signs were viewed as telling the Sex of the unborn baby:

“If the veins of the foot of a pregnant woman are red, she will give birth to a boy;
if they are black, it will be a girl. If her right breast is enlarged, it will be a boy;
if the left is enlarged, then a girl. If the nipples of her breasts are red,
it will be a boy; if they are black, then a girl. If milk flows from her right
breast, it will be a boy; from the left, a girl”. (Rhazes)

	Male	Female
Complexion	Better color	More pale
Breast	Right is bigger, lactates first	Left is bigger, lactates first
Milk	Cast into water sinks to bottom	Cast into water it disperses
Eye	Right is bigger, more dominant	Left is bigger, more dominant
Pulse	Right is bigger, fuller	Left is bigger
Walking	Sets off with her right foot first	Sets off with her left foot first
Abdomen	-Right side is bigger, more pointed -sits above the navel	-Left side is more prominent -abdomen more flat, sits below navel
Mother’s Health	Better health, less problems	Health not as good, more problems
Mother’s Action	Quicker, more nimble	More docile and lethargic
Mother’s Craving	Meat, hot food, cooked food	Cold foods, dairy
Sickness or Accident	More prone to retain fetus after sickness or accident	More prone to miscarry after sickness or accident

The above signs are compiled from a number of sources, mostly Western. These signs were generally noted not to be definitive by themself, but when several signs clearly point to the sex of the child, it is usually correct.

It is interesting that the strength of the pulse on either left or right side were used to determine the sex of the child in both West and TCM.

Signs the Child has Died in the Womb

The following is taken from Dr. Chamberlain’s Midwives Practice, 1665:

1. If the Child be dead in the womb, you will perceive the womans breasts suddenly to slack, and fall down flat or flagging as it were,
2. The Child ceases to move or stir, although it used to stir before, you may wet your hand in warm water, and lay it upon the mothers belly,
wich is a means to make the Child stir if it have life.
3. If when the Mother turns her self from one side to the other, she feels it fall heavily to that side she lies upon, like a dead lump or weight.
4. Her belly and Navel begins to wax cold, which before was temperately hot.
5. Stinking and putrid humors flow from the Matrix, especially after some grievous Difſcaſe.
6. The womans Eyes look hollow, her colour becomes swarthy, her lips wax wan, and her eyes and nose as if she were astonished.
7. Beneath the Navel, and about the secret parts [genitals] she feels great pain, and the color of her face changes worse and worse, otherwise than it was wont to do.
8. If she have a desire and longing to eat such things which be against Nature, and not wont to be eaten or drunken,
9. She is vexed and affrighted in her ſleep with Fearful and terrible dreams, phantaſmes of the Ghosts of the Dead trouble her,
10. The pains of the Strangary and Tenesmus do afflict her; so that she will have much desire, and force her self to the Stool, but cannot doe anything.
11, Her breath stinks, and that usually within two or three days after the Child is dead,
12, If you dip your hands in very warm water, and lay them on the womans belly, and then if you feel not the Child stir, it is a certainsign it is dead, as I have touched before.

The text goes on to say that if several of these signs appear together, it is certain.

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See also

Fertility
Threatened Miscarriage

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