and provided with tabs to which to pin the folded cloth.  She also should have a supply of sanitary cloths made of absorbent cotton fabric, or pads made of absorbent-cotton enclosed in gauze.  The latter are especially convenient for the girl who is obliged to room away from home, for they may be burned, and the cost of new ones is no greater than the laundry of cloths.  These pads or cloths should be changed at least twice a day.  It also is necessary that one should bathe the parts in warm water with each change, as unpleasant odors can thereby be avoided.  At the close of each period she should take a bath and change all clothing.  One cannot be too careful about these matters, so essential to cleanliness and health.

During this period, girls naturally have a feeling of lassitude or disinclination to do any great mental or physical work, accompanied, perhaps, by a slight feeling of uneasiness in the pelvic region (the part of the body that contains the womb and ovaries).  Because so many do suffer at this time, it often is considered “natural” and allowed to continue, but now that you know so much about the body you will understand that it is not necessary to have any pains at this period.  If there is pain, it shows that we are not taking proper care of ourselves.  Even our stomach will give us severe pain if we do not take proper care of it or if we overload it.

The monthly discharge varies in quantity with the individual.  Usually fleshy girls flow more than thin ones, and dark complexioned girls than light ones.  The discharge lasts about four days, and is the only symptom that many girls experience in menstruation.  This usually is the case with those who are well and whose lives are happily employed.

I wanted you to know all these things, Violet, for sometimes when little girls do not understand what this flow means they are frightened when they see the blood.  Some women even dread motherhood because they do not know what to expect at that time nor how to care for themselves.  All women naturally love babies and if taught correctly would want to have them.  If they do not, it usually is because they have known of other women suffering through ignorance and are afraid.  If they would learn more about these wonderful bodies of ours and more about the care of little babies, they would understand how to care for themselves so as to have healthy, happy babies.  Not only that but they would see it was the natural and the best thing for them to have children.  In any work we undertake, in everything we do, there is a possibility of an accident.  So it is in motherhood.  A woman in normal health whose home life is congenial, who loves children and who desires to have one, never should have any serious trouble nor great pain.  Painless childbirth is a possibility if women only understood the care of themselves.