Chapter Four
THINGS THE TOTAL GIRL SHOULD KNOW ABOUT HERSELF
* She should learn to know more about her self by understanding how her body and mind work.
* She should also learn how to make the right choices by thinking about things carefully and then decide what will be best for her and her future.
* Her body:
When they are still small, boys and girls are much the same. The big difference comes when boys start to become men, and girls start to become women. This phase of growing up is called puberty. This change doesn’t always happen to everyone at the same age either. Girls usually start developing earlier than boys, and each person developing at his or her own rate. Being an early or late starter does not make any difference – everyone catches up at the end of this period of change.
Before you see and feel this new growth of your body, a change has been taking place inside you. In your brain, a special gland has sent hormones to parts of your body, giving your sexual organs messages to start working towards making you an adult. In a girl, these messages start the OVARIES working. In a boy they start the TESTICLES working.
AGIRLS’S BODY:
Unlike a boy’s a girl’s sex organs are mostly inside her body. The part outside her body, between her legs is called the VULVA’. A small organ call the ‘CLITORIS” is found within the folds of the vulva. It is a sexually sensitive part of the body.
THE VAGINA is the passageway from the outside of the body to the UTERUS (womb). This passageway can stretch considerably; it is the opening through which blood passes from the uterus each month during menstruation. It is the place where a man puts his penis and where sperms are released during sexual intercourse. The vagina is also the passage through which a baby passes when it is born.
The opening into the vagina is partly covered by a thin skin called ‘HYMEN. Some people think-that a girl’s hymen can only be broken the first time she has intercourse. This is not true. Many girl’s and young women lose their hymen through participation in vigorous activities like sport or using a tampon before they ever have intercourse. In other words, while they are still virgins. A virgin is someone who has not yet had sexual intercourse.
There is another small opening in front of the vagina through which a girls passes urine. It is much smaller than, and completely separate from the vagina.
Hidden inside the body at the other side of the vagina, there is a small opening called the ‘CERVIX’ (mouth of the uterus). Although this tiny opening leads into the uterus, nothing big, like a tampon, can pass through it. Sperms easily pass through it. And travel up the uterus to the tubes.
The uterus is the place where the baby grows when a woman is pregnant. It gets bigger and stretches as the baby grows. There is an ovary on each side of the uterus. The woman’ ova (eggs) are stored in the ovaries and there is a small tube, the uterine tube through which the ovum passes on its way to the uterus. When a woman’s ovum (egg) combines with the man’s sperm, a new human being begins to develop. The ovaries also produce female hormones; estrogen stimulates the development of pubic hair, breasts and rounded hips. They are also responsible for the change in the lining of the uterus, which result in menstruation or periods.
Angela Inyena Anietie
08065189975 (SMS Only)
E-mail: angelstars.emp@gmail.com
