Marriage and parenthood
1934-11 1934 1930s 22 pages Parenthood 13 health by good feeding, clothing, and similar ministrations. It is greater to give a good education. But the greatest is to develop a character." (Copec Report, Vol. 3, p. 41.) But though parenthood is one of the supreme ends of marriage, modern...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
London : Friends' Book Centre
November 1934
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/9220CB75-4194-41CA-BCB7-737BCB32BB85 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/80304BE5-67BB-43A8-81D4-5DEF54AC96C0 |
| Summary: | 1934-11
1934
1930s
22 pages
Parenthood 13 health by good feeding, clothing, and similar ministrations. It is greater to give a good education. But the greatest is to develop a character." (Copec Report, Vol. 3, p. 41.) But though parenthood is one of the supreme ends of marriage, modern conditions, particularly the increased expectation of life, have made some limitation of the family natural, desirable, and necessary. Economic conditions press heavily upon young married people, and the birth and upbringing of a child is a much more formidable financial burden than it was before the war. There must be many young couples who long to have children and yet have no margin to meet the inevitable cost. It is the undeniable right of every child that its existence should be desired and not begrudged, and no couple should bring children into the world for whom they cannot provide the necessaries of life. Again, in these days of economic competition, parents are anxious to give their children the best possible equipment for life, though in this connection it may perhaps be suggested that brothers and sisters are of even more value to a child than an expensive education. But it cannot be denied that very frequent pregnancies over a number of years may impose a burden on women which they should not be called upon to bear, and which, moreover, is not in the best interests either of the family or of the community. For all these and other reasons, every married couple is faced with the problem of deciding what course they are going to follow. Most will agree that some form of limitation of the size of the family is essential. It is for each pair together to consider, thoughtfully and reverently and making use of all the information available to them, what is for them the right way. There are four recognised methods by which such limitation may be attempted : (a) By the restriction of intercourse to the so-called "safe" period. (b) By interrupting intercourse before the act is complete. (c) By abstinence from intercourse. (d) By the use of contraceptives. The method of choosing times for sexual intercourse when conception is least likely to occur is open to objection on various grounds. In the first place it is an uncertain method, since actually no period is entirely "safe". There is also reason to believe that there is a rhythmic element in the occurrence of sexual desire among women, and restriction to the period when conception is least likely to result means that union would only take place at times when the woman was least likely to have satis-
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |