But work exercises them so that they can hold their
breath, upon which depends the ease or difficulty of child-birth.
These circumstances then, as we have said, contribute to cause the
difference between women and the other animals in this state, but
the most important thing is this: in some animals the discharge
corresponding to the catamenia is but small, and in some not visible
at all, but in women it is greater than in any other animal, so that
when this discharge ceases owing to pregnancy they are troubled
(for if they are not pregnant they are afflicted with ailments
whenever the catamenia do not occur); and they are more troubled as a
rule at the beginning of pregnancy, for the embryo is able indeed to
stop the catamenia but is too small at first to consume any quantity
of the secretion; later on it takes up some of it and so alleviates
the mother. In the other animals, on the contrary, the residual matter
is but small and so corresponds with the growth of the foetus, and
as the secretions which hinder nourishment are being consumed by the
foetus the mother is in better bodily condition than usual. The same
holds good also with aquatic animals and birds. If it ever happens
that the body of the mother is no longer in good condition when the
foetus is now becoming large, the reason is that its growth needs more
nourishment than the residual matter supplies. (In some few women
it happens that the body is in a better state during pregnancy;
these are women in whose body the residual matter is small so that
it is all used up along with the nourishment that goes to the foetus.
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