Handbook of midwifery for midwives : from the official handbook of midwifery for Prussian midwives, published by direction of the Minister for Spiritual, Educational, and Medical Affairs / by J.E. Burton.

  • Prussia.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Handbook of midwifery for midwives : from the official handbook of midwifery for Prussian midwives, published by direction of the Minister for Spiritual, Educational, and Medical Affairs / by J.E. Burton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    no pregnancy. Women who have aborted must avoid it altogether. A pregnant woman should keep herself from strong mental excitements—such as fear, anger, and passion —as much as possible. Many women are inclined to be melancholy towards the end of the time, and believe they will never get over it. In such cases the midwife should strive to soothe and encourage them, and en- deavour to instil courage, hopefulness, and confidence into them. If the pregnant woman intends to suckle her child herself, she should keep the nipples very clean, by washing them frequently with soap and cold water; and in the later months she should moisten them night and morning with brandy, or a decoction of oak bark, in order to avoid sore nipples in childbed. If the nipples are not sufficiently prominent, the midwife should recommend her charge to draw them carefully out with the fingers several times a day during the last few weeks. SECTIO]^ II. REGULAR LABOUR, AND THE DUTIES OF THE MIDWIFE IN CONNECTION THEREWITH. CHAPTER I. LABOUR IN GENERAL. §70. ’Labour is that process in a pregnant woman by which her fruit, with its coverings, is cast out from the womb by the powers provided by nature for the purpose. The expelling powers are the contractions of the womb, these being aided towards the end of labour hj 'pres- sure from the abdominal muscles. By these the re- sistance which the narrowness of the genital passages ofiers to the passage of the ovum is overcome: first, the resistance of the neck of the womb; then that of