Volume 1

The household physician : a family guide to the preservation of health and to the domestic treatment of ailments and disease, with chapters on food and drugs and first aid in accidents and injuries / by J. McGregor-Robertson ; with an introduction by John G. McKendrick.

  • M'Gregor-Robertson, J. (Joseph), 1858-1925
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The household physician : a family guide to the preservation of health and to the domestic treatment of ailments and disease, with chapters on food and drugs and first aid in accidents and injuries / by J. McGregor-Robertson ; with an introduction by John G. McKendrick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    568/602 (page 496)
    AFTER-PAINS. [Sect. XVII. to absorb tlie discharge, the clean warm blanket within a folded sheet is pushed under her, and a bandage applied round the waist. The ban- dage should be shaped to fit her body and should be fastened with safety-pins in front, a pad of a couple of folded napkius being placed beneath it and over the w'oinb. The bandacje is to be fastened with a moderate degTee of tightness, and adds much to the person’s comfort. The clothing and bed-clothes are now adjusted and the patient left to rest, the head being low. Soon after the mother has been made com- fortable she may have a warm drink, cup of warm tea or such simple drink, hut no stimu- lant. It is well as soon as the child is dressed to put it to the bi’east, if the mother is not too tired, for a few minutes. The contact of the child’s mouth with the breast gently stimulates the contraction of the womb, and tends to pre- vent relaxation of the womb and bleeding. Re- gularly every third hour thereafter the child must be replaced at the breast (see p. 438), whether there be milk or not. The effort at sucking promotes the production of milk. If the mother be thirsty a small quantity of cold water or milk is not to be denied her, but only a small quantity is to be allowed. After the first application of the child the woman needs a rest. The infant should be removed to its own basket-bed, in order to permit a two or three hours sleep to its mother. When she awakes she needs food. The old j)ractice was to give only tea and dry toast for several days after confinement, and to deny rigorously all cold drinks. This is absurd, and fortunately is only now practised by the ignorant. The mo- ther needs ffood nourishing food. It should be provided her in small quantities at regular in- tervals of three or four hours. It may consist of boiled bread and milk, varied with beef-tea, mutton soup to which only rice and parsley have been added, about a breakfast-cupful at a time with bread, and once or twice in the twenty-four hours a cup of tea and lightly-but- tered toast, if such be desired. Diet such as this, if given in moderate quantities at the three or four hours interval, will suit admirably for the first two or three days. During the night the food is al.so to be supplied. By the third day a soft-boiled egg, switched, and given with bread and milk, will be acceptable, or boiled white-fish, with the cup of tea, beef-tea and soup being also given as before. By the fourth clay or thereby the diet may be varied with some well-cooked minced meat or a lean In-oiled steak or chop, with bread, and piece of chicken and so forth. Thus gradually the diet will return to what is usual, more detailed directions for which are given on pp. 439, 440. Thirst is re- lieved by small quantities of cold water or milk, soda-water and milk, &c. If by the third morning after the birth the bowels have not been moved, a sufficient dose of castor-oil should be given. Thereafter, if medicine is required a wine-glassful of Hunyadi Janos mineral water given in the morning is best. Any difficulty in passing water will be relieved by the application of flannel, wrung out of hot water, over the lower part of the belly and between the legs. Throughout this time the mother remains in bed, not being allowed to sit up for any purpose, food being given by means of a drinking-cup, and the discharges being passed into a bed-jDan. Visito7's a7'e fo7'hidden. Sitting up in bed is not to be allowed till the seventh day, and then only for a brief period for meals, and the patient must not be allowed out of bed at all before the tenth day, and then only for a few minutes, wrapped in blankets. A fortnight after the birth is soon enough to permit the mother to get up for any length of time with clothes on. Even by that time she should rise for say an hour in the forenoon and an hour in the evening, and each day gradually lengthen the time till after another week she spends the better portion of the afternoon out of bed. It is infinitely better for her to take a long period of rest in order to rise thoroughly recovered and with restored strength, than to get up too soon and require to take soon to bed again with full recovery impeded. Details as to the management of the period of nursing are given on pp. 438 to 448. After-pains are of the nature of labour pains on a small scale, and are due to irregular con- tractions of the womb, owing to the ])resence of blood clots and the ettbrt to expel them. As a rule they do not occur after a first laboiu', and may be greatly lessened after subsequent labours by the method of following the descent of the womb with the hand, and by the method of removing the after-birth, which have been de- scribed. They may be relieved by the applica- tion, close up between the legs, of a thick pad of flannel wrung tightly out of hot water. If they are severe a single dose of twenty drops of laudanum may be given. This is to be repeated in two or three hours, only if really necessary. The discharge from the womb for the first