The young wife's advice book : a guide for mothers on health and self-management / by George Black.

  • Black, George, of Edinburgh.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The young wife's advice book : a guide for mothers on health and self-management / by George Black. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    in attending to this, and the patient’s life in consequence endangered. Everything that is likely to be wanted at this time should be provided; thus there should be a pair of scissors, pieces of tape, not very broad, a ball of worsted, and some whity-brown thread. These should all be at hand, as, unless the patient is already familiar with what the medical attendant is in the habit of using for the purpose of tying the cord, any of these may be required. There should also be an ample supply oi towels, s flannel receiver, soap, violet powder, or other unirritating powder, a pot oi lard without salt. The infant’s clothes, and the bath for washing the child, should also be in readiness. 4. The bed.—The best kind of bed to have in the lying-in room is one made of iron. It should not stand above three feet from the ground, and the mattress should be of horse-hair. The fewer curtains there are about the bed the better. A large sheet of Mackintosh or other waterprooi material should be placed above the mattress to protect it, and above this a blanket and then a sheet. Next there should be a folded sheet to place under the patient as a draw-sheet, which is to be removed when labour is over. A sheet or large towel should also be taken and folded so as to form a kind of rope for the patient to pul] by when the pains assume a beering-down character. This should be fastened to the foot of the bed, to one or other side, or it may be fixed to the far corner of the head of the bed it preferred. A small cushion should also be provided, against which the patient may press her feet during the presence of a pain. Neither the towel nor the cushion should be made use of till the pains have become bearing-down, otherwise the patient may exhaust her strength needlessly, because at a time when such can be of no use 5. The dress of the female.—This should consist of a chemise, from which on going to bed the patient will withdraw her arms, so that it may be slipped off without difficulty on the completion of labour ; a petticoat, which also is to be removed when labour is over. A clean chemise should also be put cn