Indian Medicine (Medicin), translated by C. G. Kashikar c11.9

c11.9

During pregnancy the foetus is in the uterus, turned towards the back of the mother, the head above, hands folded on the forehead, with bent body, lying on the right side (of the mother) if it is male, on the left if female, in the middle if impotent. When the mother sleeps it sleeps, when she rises it rises, for the foetus is not independent. Since the conception the feeding and animation of the foetus are maintained by the vessels conducting the chyle (rasa) and pervading the whole body of the mother, when one part of the diet of the woman which is turned into chyle feeds her own body, another part forms the milk in her breasts and a third part feeds the foetus and makes it grow. When the body of the foetus is developed, a vessel is connected to its navel, the placenta (aparā) is connected to the vessel and to it the heart of the mother. Then the essence of the food flows from the heart of the mother to the placenta through the veins, from there to the navel (of the foetus) and then to the internal body of the foetus after being digested by the (digestive) fire of the same and it nourishes the elements and component parts of the foetus (Car 4.6.23; AS 2.2.203 ff.; Su 3.3.31; 3.5.42; Bhoja in Ḍallaṇa l. c.). The foetus excretes neither wind nor urine nor faeces, because it does not take for itself any food except the chyle which is free from impurity and because it has no wind inside the body. It does not cry, because its mouth is stopped by placenta, the throat is filled with phlegm and the passage of the wind is blocked. Breathing, movements and sleep coincide with the corresponding actions of the mother (Su 3.2.53-55; AS 2.2.204).