But it doesn’t stop there. As the baby sucks and our bodies respond by producing more prolactin two other very important things happen as a result. For a start, the prolactin cuts down the amount of adrenalin we’re producing, and this keeps us calm while we’re feeding our infants and gives us that lovely purring sense of well-being that so many happily breast-feeding mothers enjoy. And on top of that, it makes us produce another of those subtle but very influential body scents or pheromones. This one is specially for the baby who will smell it and respond to it at once. This is how even a very new baby can recognize its own mother and respond to her. It’s a powerful, natural way of ensuring that these two very important human beings bond to each other. And it works on the same principle and in the same sort of way as the sexy pheromones we produce half-way through the month — the ones that turn on our husbands and boyfriends.

I can’t help feeling that we shouldn’t tamper with such a powerful hormone, especially when we know what far-reaching effects it has on the way we function as wives and mothers. Even the doctors at St Thomas’ who are the most ardent advocates of using drugs to cut down the amount of prolactin their patients produce, are honest enough to admit that they don’t know yet exactly what the effects of suppressing it may be. One of them, Dr Brush, a biochemist who works at St Thomas’ says: ‘The exact mechanism of action of pyridoxine in premenstrual tension treatment is not yet fully understood but it is likely to be at more than one level’.

*84\177\2*

For some it’s simply a matter of being more clumsy than usual; they burn the toast or break the china or can’t park the car. For others, clumsiness leads to accidents; they cut themselves on carving knives or fall downstairs or burn themselvs on irons or ovens; they have road accidents; they get injured at work. Others find that their clumsiness takes the form of making them less alert than usual, and although they don’t have accidents themselves, their children do. During a survey carried out at the Middlesex Hospital, London, it was discovered that forty nine per cent of the mothers of one hundred children who had been admitted as emergencies were suffering from the approach of a period at the time their child was hurt. If you took a random sample of any hundred women, you would expect to find that there were about a quarter of them in the last week of their particular monthly cycle. Yet the survey revealed a figure twice as high as you would expect.

British industry suffers too because of ‘menstrual difficulties’. A recent estimate claimed that about three per cent of the total wage bill was paid to women unable to work because of their

periods.

And as if it weren’t bad enough to be accident prone, many of us also notice that our senses seem to be blunted by an approaching period. They desert us just at the moment we need them most. Our sense of smell isn’t nearly so acute. So we don’t notice that we’ve left the gas tap on and unlit until much later than we usually would. Some of us find it difficult to focus our eyes. We don’t seem to see straight. Is it any wonder that we miss our footing?

It’s nothing new, of course. In lots of early cultures menstruating women were set apart; they were not allowed to cook food in case they spoiled it, or to use sharp knives or unwieldy instruments. Very sensible when you think about it, although it was tough on the women who weren’t off-balance. In those days people thought that there was something magic and evil about menstrual blood. Now we know that it’s chemistry that’s doing the damage. We’re clumsy and accident-prone because the chemical balance of our bodies is upset. So I think when we are having a period if we know we’re vulnerable we should try to keep out of harm’s way as much as we can.

You’ve no doubt read that one of the most dangerous places in which to work is your own home — an odd fact but one that is supported by a great many statistics. Most houses are full of hazards and a very high proportion of all accidents, especially to children and old people, happen at home. I’ve tried to suggest ways of dealing with danger at home and at work. The third most hazardous place is on the road, whether you’re a pedestrian or a driver. Plainly, if you’re accident prone before a period, you must be particularly careful.

*42\177\2*