DINNER FOR EACH DAY OF THE WEEK.
Monday.—Macaroni soup, asparagus on toast, mashed potatoes, sago-apple pudding or rice snow.
Tuesday.—Noodle soup, raw oysters, potato puffs, succotash, baked macaroni, cold slaw, baked rice pudding or apple-tapioca pudding, fruit.
Wednesday.—Tomato soup, fresh fish, mashed potatoes, beets, baked Indian pudding or rhubarb pie.
Thursday.—Vegetable soup, tomatoes on toast, creamed potatoes, stewed macaroni, corn, cracked-wheat pudding or cornstarch blanc-mange, fruit.
Friday.—Rice soup, creamed codfish, green peas, spinach, boiled potatoes, strawberry shortcake or fruit blanc-mange.
Saturday.—Potato soup, macaroni and cheese, vegetable oysters, creamed cabbage, baked rice omelet, fruit shortcake, fruit.
Sunday.—Baked chicken, sweet potatoes, celery, unleavened bread, potato puffs, corn, farina blanc-mange with jelly, nuts and fruits.
Copy this bill of fare and paste in the kitchen, where it will be handy to refer to. If one is not accustomed to the use of grains it requires some patience to learn to prepare the food so that it will prove both nourishing and satisfactory to a delicate appetite. See chapter on dietetics for recipes.
The following table has been carefully prepared from Payen’s food analysis. It will afford assistance in selecting appropriate diet, and should be studied with care.
ANALYSIS OF FOOD.
| ARTICLES. | Nitrogenous | Carbonaceous | Mineral Salts. | Waste. | Water. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wheat[1] | 18 | 77 | 2 | 3 | |
| Rye[1] | 13 | 81 | 3 | 3 | |
| Barley[1] | 13 | 79 | 3 | 5 | |
| Oats[1] | 14 | 75 | 3 | 8 | |
| Maize[1] | 12 | 80 | 1 | 7 | |
| Buckwheat | 13 | 67 | 2 | 4 | 14 |
| Rice | 5 | 82 | 0 | 4 | 9 |
| Beans | 30 | 57 | 4 | 1 | 8 |
| Lean Meat | 19 | 4 | 5 | 72 | |
| Potatoes | 2 | 24 | 1 | 73 | |
| White Fish | 18 | 3 | 1 | 78 | |
| Eggs | 16 | 30 | 2 | 52 | |
| Milk | 4 | 9 | 1 | 86 | |
| Sugar | 100 | ||||
| Butter |
[1] A dry state. In any ordinary state grains contains 11 to 18 per cent. water.
CHAPTER X.
HYGIENE IN PREGNANCY.—EXERCISE.
Motion is a law of nature. All animal life is full of activity. Remaining quietly in closely heated rooms frequently causes disease in the pregnant woman. Without exercise, food cannot be assimilated, the processes of depurition are imperfect, the muscles lose tone and power, and the nervous system becomes prostrated. On the other hand, excessive labor often proves injurious. Some muscles are overtaxed and local strains produced. It is difficult to give directions applicable to all cases. Exercise should not be carried to actual fatigue. A weariness that makes the bed feel good can do no harm.
General housework is desirable, avoiding the more laborious portion, like washing, scrubbing and heavy lifting. In housework one brings into action nearly all the muscles of the body, with the exception of some of the trunk and those used in deep respiration. Even these would not lack development if clothing caused no restrictions. In the home work a woman reaches, stoops, turns, walks, lifts and climbs stairs.
Housekeeping usually interests a woman during pregnancy if at no other time. She is nest building, and the home work is a labor of love. She rests in the quiet of a cozy, retired home. How easy to perform the duties that the heart sanctions and impels!
If a woman has no functional derangement, walking and carriage riding are invaluable. She cannot be too much in the out-door air. Properly clothed, brisk walking brings into action nearly every muscle, and is invigorating to every function. American women, as a rule, walk too little. Wearing common sense shoes, having the arms free, the dress short and loose, one can accustom herself to walking long distances with positive benefit.
Light gardening can not be too highly recommended. It has the advantage of being out doors. It gives postures that bring into action the unused muscles of the trunk and abdomen.
Coming in contact with the earth carries off any excess of electricity. Besides, the result, either in a supply of fresh vegetables for the table, or in floral decorations, are always satisfactory. My own experience proves that getting out and working in the ground is a cure-all for ennui, indigestion, torpid liver, anxiety, despondency; indeed, any slight physical derangement or mental disturbance.
Possessing no garden to cultivate, lying flat upon the ground without blanket or pillow answers a good purpose. More rest can be obtained in five minutes than in five hours upon lounge or bed in the house. Although this is contrary to all tradition and teaching, many have proved its value.
What is the object to be gained by exercise in pregnancy? Evidently absorption, nutrition and excretion. All the functions must be kept to a normal standard, so that the processes of assimilation and waste can be perfectly performed.
The involuntary muscles of respiration must be educated. Those required in parturition must be developed and strengthened. There are the muscles of the abdomen, pelvis, perineum and groin, also some of the muscles of the trunk.
Full and deep breathing is not only necessary to perfectly oxygenate the blood and by the attendant motion to promote digestion, but it makes room for the fetus as well. It expands the wall of the abdomen and chest, and strengthens the sustaining power of the uterus. Is it not possible, too, that it gives a needed exercise to the fetus, a constant gentle motion promoting the functions necessary to its development and growth?
Breathing for the most part is an involuntary action, and in children and animals is performed naturally from the abdomen or flank. “Look upon that quietly sleeping cat on the rug. Its sole indication of vitality is the bellows-like motion of its body in breathing. You must also have observed that in all domestic animals, at each respiration, an undulating motion extends quite through the whole trunk, and that this motion terminates only at the hindermost limbs. This is natural respiration as it is performed throughout quadruped existence.
“Have you a perfectly healthy lady friend? Lay your hand upon her and you will find that her abdomen rises and falls in exactly the same way at every respiratory act; not only so, but that this act is involuntarily performed in a more profound manner every few moments, and that this increased motion operates particularly upon the lowest portion of the trunk.
“Observe in the same way your own person. If you are an invalid, you will find this motion diminished, perhaps suppressed. When one half breathes he only half lives.”
The lungs or air receptacles are enclosed within the walls of the chest or thoratic cavity; beneath the lungs is the great breathing motor, the diaphragm, of a convex shape when in repose. In all correct inhalation the air filling the lungs flattens the diaphragm. This must result in the expansion of the body adjacent to and surrounding the diaphragm. Natural breathing should be accomplished without any upheaval of the chest or hoisting of the shoulders.
That adults, and especially women, have not this deep waist breathing is on account of disuse of the muscles. The young man who is stoop-shouldered, walks the streets with his hands in his pockets or sits bent over his desk, soon diminishes the action of these muscles. The girl, deprived of pockets, may keep her head and shoulders erect, yet by faulty dress, compresses and fixes the lower muscles of respiration and breathes only with the top of the lungs. When either man or woman has lost the ability to breathe deeply, a long road must be traveled to educate the muscles back to natural use.
A man in Colorado had broncorrhœa and occasional lung hemorrhage. Although he could walk six or seven miles he could not breathe below the eighth rib. I said: “I did not know a man could live, and breathe no deeper. By all your hopes of life, you must learn to breathe. To be sure you can walk, but the muscles of your legs don’t help your respiration. You must take exercises that develop the diaphragm and abdominal muscles. Breathe down, down, and relieve the congestion of the upper lungs.” He said: “I have consulted many physicians the last six years, and why have none told me this before?” Several months afterward he wrote me that by simply developing the lower muscles of respiration, he had saved funeral expenses.
The gymnast and vocalist take pains to teach deep breathing, which is simply restoring natural processes. The cow will low all day for her lost offspring without fatigue or hoarseness, because she does it with expiration, and breathes from her waist or flanks. The boy who roams the woods, gathers nuts and hunts squirrels and keeps his hands out of his pockets, can hallo hours without weariness. He breathes naturally and uses his voice naturally. He does only what the singer and orator are taught to do, because through disuse this has become a lost art to them.
The blacksmith or stone-cutter desiring to strike a heavy blow, does it with expiration, and the breath is driven from the lungs with an ugh! that is almost a groan. No matter what knotted muscles he may have upon his arm, if the great converging muscle below the lungs is not equally strong and powerful, he can not strike an effective blow. It is said that out of three hundred recent candidates for the Navy school, two hundred and twenty-five were rejected simply because of contracted chests and inefficient breathing. Manhood, womanhood, endurance and longevity depend upon lung power, and this is within the reach of all.
Educate the muscles of respiration. “To learn deep breathing be as passive as possible; that is, assume a position in which all the voluntary motor muscles are inactive. Lie flat on the back, perfectly horizontal, without even an elevation of the head. Shut the mouth and draw the air in through the channel provided by nature—the nose. As a result of bad habits, most persons will raise the upper ribs, yet this expansion will soon yield to a movement of the lower ribs, and this again will gradually cease by continued practice, as will also every distension of the ribs. All these faulty movements will be superseded by a bulging out of the abdomen, which will be proportioned to the amount of air inhaled.” Exhale also through the nose, letting the breath out slowly. Alternate costal and abdominal breathing. That is, with one inspiration swell out the sides; burst the belt; this retracts the abdomen; with the next bulge out the abdomen, which is done by pressing the diaphragm down.
Massage is a most desirable mode of exercise, especially for invalids and delicate people. This is a thorough manipulation by an attendant of all the muscles.
Massage is one of the most effective of all manipulations to promote nerve currents and blood circulation. It renders the skin soft and elastic. The action extends deeply in the body, thus promoting the activity of all the blood-vessels. It restores the circulation to the extremities, thus relieving the plethora of the viscera generally attendant upon chronic diseases.
The muscle-beater is a convenient and inexpensive substitute for the hand, in Massage and Swedish movement cures, as it gives excellent muscular treatment without the aid of an assistant. This little instrument consists of three rubber tubes, fastened together toward the handle. With this, one can treat the skin and muscles in any part of the body.
Always in standing and walking, assume the