sexual intercourse during pregnancy should be avoided as much as
possible. Fürbringer (Senator and Kaminer, _Health and Disease in
Relation to Marriage_, vol. i, p. 226) recommends abstinence from
the sixth or seventh month, and throughout the whole of pregnancy
where there is any tendency to miscarriage, while in all cases
much care and gentleness should be exercised.

The whole subject has been investigated in a Paris Thesis by H.
Brénot (_De L'Influence de la Copulation pendant la Grossesse_,
1903); he concludes that sexual relations are dangerous
throughout pregnancy, frequently provoking premature confinement
or abortion, and that they are more dangerous in primiparæ than
in multiparæ.

Nearly everything that has been said of the hygiene of pregnancy, and the
need for rest, applies also to the period immediately following the birth
of the child. Rest and hygiene on the mother's part continue to be
necessary alike in her own interests and in the child's. This need has
indeed been more generally and more practically recognized than the need
for rest during pregnancy. The laws of several countries make compulsory a
period of rest from employment after confinement, and in some countries
they seek to provide for the remuneration of the mother during this
enforced rest. In no country, indeed, is the principle carried out so
thoroughly and for so long a period as is desirable. But it is the right
principle, and embodies the germ which, in the future, will be developed.
There can be little doubt that whatever are the matters, and they are
certainly many, which may be safely left to the discretion of the
individual, the care of the mother and her child is not among them. That
is a matter which, more than any other, concerns the community as a whole,
and the community cannot afford to be slack in asserting its authority