Advice to a wife on the management of her own health : and on the treatment of some of the complaints incidental to pregnancy, labour and suckling with and introductory chapter especially addressed to a young wife / by Pye Henry Chavasse.

  • Q52148313
Date:
[1877]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Advice to a wife on the management of her own health : and on the treatment of some of the complaints incidental to pregnancy, labour and suckling with and introductory chapter especially addressed to a young wife / by Pye Henry Chavasse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    last related, the formation of mammary abscess [gathered breast] was only just prevented by arresting any fm-ther irritation of the breast by suckling; and since I have kept careful notes of my cases, I have observed that in all instances of abscess there has been abundant evi- dence of a demand being made upon the gland for a supply of milk beyond that which it had the power of secreting. If the chUd only has been kept to the breast, then it has suffered with disordered bowels; but in the majority of cases an additional irritation has been applied; the commonly-received doctrine, that a turgid breast is necessarily overloaded with mUlc, leads mothers and nurses to the use of breaat-pumps, exhausted bottles, or even the application of the powerful sucking powers of the nurse herself, to relieve the breasts of their sup- posed excess; and it is this extraordinary irritation, which in the majority of cases determines the formation of an abscess [gathering]. Sometimes these measures are adopted to remove the mUk when a woman is not going to suckle, and then an abscess not unfrequently is established. I have previously alluded to the mistake into which mothers and nurses are led by the appearance of a swollen breast: it is not evidence that the gland can secrete freely, and it is in this turgid state that the excessive irritation tells most severely. This hypersemic [plethoric] condition seems to be a step towards inflam- mation, and the irritation supplies that which is wanting to complete the process. If a woman will only remove the child from the breast directly the act of sucking produces pain, she may be pretty sure to avoid abscess. So long as the milk can be obtained there is no pain. The above most valuable advice deserves great attention, and ought to be strictly followed. 890. Hoio is a patient to knoio that she is about to have a gathered bosom?—There are two forms of gathered breast; one being of vast, and the other of trifling importance. The first, the serious one, consists of gathering of the stntcture of the gland of the breast itself; the latter, merely of the superficial paH of the