[Gutenberg 56846] • What Every Mother Should Know; or, How Six Little Children Were Taught The Truth

Originally published in 1913, Margaret Sanger’s “What Every Mother Should Know; or, How Six Little Children Were Taught the Truth” is (in the author’s words) “for the mother so as to enable her to make the truth and facts just as interesting to a child’s imagination as possible. The idea is that the child be taught the process of reproduction and absorb such knowledge without realizing he has received any ‘sex’ instruction.” The chapters, which originally appeared as articles in the “New York Call” in 1911, are based on discussions and lessons Margaret Sanger developed for her own son, Stuart, and for neighboring children.

CONTENTS

I. Introduction

II. Mr. and Mrs. Buttercup, Their Home and Families

III. The Flowers

IV. The Toads and Frogs

V. The Birds and Their Families

VI. The Birds and Their Families (concluded)

VII. The Mammals and Their Children

VIII. Man’s Development

XIX. Conclusion

Sample passage:

They were told that as the mammal grows and develops within the body of the mother her shape becomes changed—becomes larger in the region where the new life lies, and that is how one could tell that Mrs. Pussy Cat was going to have a family.

It was dwelt upon at great length that it was necessary to know this, because every mother needs protection from worry, excitement, cruelty, overwork, starvation at such a period; that she needed kindness, rest, good food, sunshine, in order that she give the little ones strength and health.

They were told that in smaller animals many more eggs develop at a time and are fertilized, but in the larger animals such as cows, horses, elephants, etc., only one egg develops and one animal is born. In man, too, this is true. One egg develops at a time, and if it is fertilized it remains in its little nest (or uterus), and grows until it is ready to stand the changed conditions into which it must come after it is born. If it is not fertilized it passes on out of the body and is lost; but when it is fertilized by the father, it remains in the uterus and grows until it is grown enough to withstand a different life and different surroundings.

At first the new being is only the size of a pea (that is in a week after it is fertilized). In a few weeks (eight) it is the size of a lemon, and its shape is complete. In four months it begins to move about, to kick, to move its little hands, and in nine months Mother Nature can develop it no more. It is time to change, if it is to live, so she sends it along the passage, enlarging the passage and stretching it as it goes—which causes much pain and suffering to the mother until it reaches the outside world, where it is taken and cared for and loved, and all the mother’s pain is forgotten in the joy of having her little one alive and strong and well.

About the author:

Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) was a nurse, sex educator, and birth control activist. In 1916 she opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S.; soon after, she was arrested and jailed for distributing contraceptives. She founded the American Birth Control League in 1921 and became the first president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation in 1953. Other works include “What Every Girl Should Know,” “The Case of Birth Control,” and “An Autobiography.”