JAUNDICE.
This, as a disease of pregnancy, is one that most frequently makes its appearance in the latter months of the period.
This state of the system should not be confounded with that in which the woman acquires a dark, almost yellow color, which, however, is not jaundice, and readily passes off after the delivery has taken place.
Causes.—In pregnancy, as at other times, this affection is often preceded by a disordered state of the stomach and alimentary canal generally. There is also, generally, a sense of weight and tightness in the abdomen, especially at the pit of the stomach, and in the right side. But in some cases none of these symptoms are observed.
Sometimes abortion has happened in connection with this state of the system; such, however, is not often the case.
Treatment.—If it is attended with violent symptoms, as is sometimes the case, it will be necessary to use active measures to cure it. In a majority of cases, however, a few days of abstemious living, alternating now and then with a day of entire fasting, together with plentiful drinking of pure, soft water, and a moderate share of bathing, will suffice to effect a cure. The wet-sheet pack is especially useful in these cases.
LETTER XVIII.
DISORDERS OF PREGNANCY.
Difficulty of Breathing—Pain in the Right Side—Itching of the Genitals—Swellings of the Limbs—Cramps of the lower Extremities—Pain of the Breasts—Hysteria—Physical Hindrances—Exposure to Disease.
Toward the latter months of pregnancy, there is always, necessarily, more or less difficulty. The uterus becomes so large, and fills so much of the abdomen, that the upward and downward motion of the diaphragm, or partition between this and the chest, is greatly impeded. Hence the dyspnœa, or difficulty of breathing. A cough, likewise, not unfrequently attends this symptom, and becomes so severe in some cases as to cause abortion.
Prevention.—Great and protracted exertion, severe fatigue of whatever kind, bodily or mental, ought to be avoided during pregnancy. Running up stairs too quickly, walking too rapidly, and any undue mental excitement, increases this difficulty of breathing. Some mothers are in the habit of taking up heavy children needlessly, and carrying them, which is one of the most certain means of doing harm to themselves. So also, inaction is bad for the breathing. If the individual do not have exercise enough to answer the purposes of health, the system becomes more plethoric or full, and thus also the difficulty is increased. The medium of neither too little nor too much should always be observed. The same also may be said of the diet. And here I remark, that if any pregnant woman will carefully make the experiment, she will find that in the latter months of pregnancy, an exceedingly small allowance of food only, with free water-drinking, bathing, and moderate exercise in the open air, will be sufficient to keep up her strength, and that in a most remarkable manner. Let her not be deluded by the old maxim, that because there are two to support she must take a greater amount of food.