GENUINE RECIPES FOR CAUSING SPEEDY DELIVERY.
A loadstone held in the travailing woman’s hand. Take wild tansy, bruise and apply it to the woman’s nostrils. Take also date stones, and beat them to powder, and let her take a drachm of them in white wine at a time.
Take parsley, bruise it, and press out the juice, and put it up (being so dipped) into the mouth of the womb, and it will presently cause the child to come away, though it be dead, and the after-burden also; besides it cleanseth the womb, and also the child in the womb, of all gross humours.
Let no midwife ever force away a child, unless she is sure it is dead. I once was where a woman was in labour, which being very hard, her midwife sent for another midwife to assist her, which midwife sending the first down stairs, and designing to have the honour of delivering the woman herself, forced away the body of the child, and left the head behind; of which the woman was forced afterwards to be delivered by a man-midwife.
After the child is born, great care is to be taken by the midwife in cutting the navel-string, which, though by some is accounted but a trifle, yet it requires none of the least skill of a midwife, to do it with that prudence and judgment that are requisite. And that it may be done so, you must consider, as soon as the child is free from its mother, whether it is weak or strong; if the child be weak, put back gently part of the vital and natural blood in the body of the child by its navel (for both the vital and natural spirits are communicated by the mother to the child by its navel-string); for that doth much recruit a weak child; but if the child be strong, you may forbear.
As to the manner of cutting the child’s navel-string, let the ligature or binding be very strong; and be sure not to cut it off very near the binding, lest the binding unloose. You need not fear to bind the navel-string very hard, because it is void of sense; and that part of the navel-string which you leave on falls off of its own accord in a few days; the whole course of nature being now changed in the child, it having another way ordained to nourish it. It is no matter with what instrument you cut it off, so it be sharp and you do it cleverly. The piece of the navel-string that falls off, be sure you keep it from touching the ground; remember what I have before told you concerning this matter, and if you keep it by you it may be of use. The navel-string being cut off, put a little cotton or lint to the place, to keep it warm, lest the cold enter the body of the child, which it will be apt to do if it be not bound up hard enough.
The next thing to be done, is to bring away the after-birth, or secundine, else it will be very dangerous for the woman. But this must be done by gentle means, and without delay, for in this case especially delays are dangerous; and also in what I have set down before, as good to cause speedy delivery, and bring away the after-birth. And after the birth and after-birth are brought away, if the woman’s body be very weak, keep her not too warm; for extremity of heat doth weaken nature and dissolve the strength; but whether she be weak or strong, let no cold air come near her at first; for cold is an enemy to the spermatic parts. If cold goes into the womb, it increases the after-pains, causes swelling in the womb, and does great hurt to the nerves.
If what I have written be carefully observed by midwives, and such nurses as keep women in their lying-in, by God’s blessing, the child-bed woman may do very well, and both midwife and nurse gain credit and reputation. For though these directions may in some things thwart the common practice, yet they are grounded upon experience, and will infallibly answer the end.
But there are several accidents that lying-in women are subject unto which must be provided against; and these I will speak of next.
The first I shall mention are after-pains, about the cause of which, authors very much differ; some think they are caused by the thinness, some by the sliminess, and others by the sharpness of the blood; but my own opinion is, they proceed from cold and water. But whatever the cause may be, this I know, that if my foregoing directions be observed, they will be very much abated, if not quite taken away. But in case they do happen, boil an egg, and pour out the yoke of it, with which mix a spoonful of cinnamon-water, and let her drink of it; and if you mix it with two grains of ambergris, it will better.
The second accident lying-in women are subject to is excoriation in the lower part of the womb. To help this, use oil of sweet almonds, or rather oil of St. John’s wort, to anoint the part with.
Another accident is, that sometimes, through very hard labour, and the great straining to bring the child into the world, the lying-in woman comes to be troubled with the hemorrhoids or piles. To cure this, let her use polypodium bruised, and boiled in her meat and drink.
A fourth thing that often follows is, the retention of the menses; this is very dangerous, and, if not remedied, proves mortal. But for this, let her take such medicines as strongly provoke the terms; and such are peony roots, dittany, juniper-berries, betony, centaury, sage, savory, pennyroyal, feverfew.
The last thing I shall mention is, the overflowing of the menses. This happens not so often as the foregoing, but yet sometimes it does; and in such cases take shepherd’s purse, either boiled in any convenient liquor, or dried and beaten to powder, and you will find it very good to stop them.
Having thus finished the Vade-Mecum for Midwives, before I conclude I will add something of the choice and qualifications of good nurses; that those who have occasion for them, may know how to order themselves, for the good of the children whom they nurse.
1. Let her age be between 20 and 30, for then she is in her prime.
2. Let her be in health, for her sickness infects the milk, and the milk the child.
3. Let her be a prudent woman, for such a one will be careful of the child.
4. Let her be not too poor; for if she wants, the child must want too.
5. Let her be well bred; for ill bred nurses corrupt good nature.
6. If it be a boy that is to be nursed, let the nurse be such a one whose last child was a boy, and so it will be the more agreeable; but if it be a girl, let the nurse be one whose last child was a girl.
7. If the nurse has a husband, see that he be a good likely man, and not given to debauchery; for that may have an influence upon the child.
8. In the last place, let the nurse take care that she be not pregnant herself; for, if so, she must of necessity either spoil her own, or yours, or both.
To the nurse thus qualified, you may put your child without danger. And let such a nurse take the following directions, for the better governing and ordering herself in that station.
Approved Directions to Nurses.
1. Let her use her body to exercise. If she hath nothing else to do, let her exercise herself by dancing the child; for moderate exercise causeth good digestion; and I am sure good blood must needs make good milk, and good milk cannot fail making a thriving child.
2. Let her live in good air; there is nothing more natural than this. It is the want of this makes so many children die in London; and even those few that live are not of the best constitutions, for gross and thick air makes unwieldy bodies and dull wits.
3. Let her be careful of her diet, and avoid all salt meats, garlics, leeks, onions, and mustard, excessive drinking wine, strong beer, or ale, for they trouble the child’s body with choler: cheese, both new and old, afflicts it with melancholy, and all fish with phlegm.
4. Let her never deny herself sleep when she is drowsy, for by that means she will be more wakeful when the child cries.
5. Let her avoid all disquiets of mind, anger, vexation, sorrow, and grief; for these things very much disorder a woman, and therefore must needs be hurtful to her milk.
6. If the nurse’s milk happen to be corrupted by an accident, as sometimes it may be, being either too hot or too cold, in such cases let her diet be good, and let her observe the cautions which have already been given her. And then, if her milk be too hot, let her cool it with endive, succory, lettuce, sorrel, purslain, and plantain; if it be too cold, let her use burorage, vervain, buglos, mother of thyme, and cinnamon; and let her observe this general rule, that whatsoever strengthens the child in the womb, the same attends the milk.
7. If the nurse wants milk, the thistle, commonly called the lady’s thistle, is an excellent thing for the breeding of milk, there being few things growing (if any) that breeds more and better milk than that doth; also the hoofs of the forefeet of the cow, dried and beaten to powder, and a drachm of the powder taken every morning in any convenient liquor, increases milk.
Choice Remedies for increasing Milk.
If any nurse be given to much fretting, it makes her lean, and hinders digestion; and she can never have store of milk, nor what she hath be good. Bad meats and drinks also hinder the increase of milk, and therefore ought to be forborne. A woman that would increase her milk, should eat the best of food, (that is if she can get it,) and let her drink milk wherein fennel seeds have been steeped. Let her take barley-water, and burrage, and spinach; also goat’s milk, and lamb sodden with verjuice. Let her also comfort the stomach with confection of aniseed, carraway, and cummin seeds, and also use those seeds sodden in water; also take barley-water, and boil therein green fennel and dill, and sweeten it with sugar, and drink it at pleasure.
Hot fomentations open the breasts, and attract the blood, as decoction of fennel, smallage, or stamped mint applied. Or, take fennel and parsley, green, each a handful, boil and stamp them, and barley-meal half an ounce, with seed drachm, storax, calamint, two drachms, oil of lilies two ounces, and make a poultice.
Lastly, take half an ounce of deer’s suet, and as much parsley roots, an ounce and a half of barley-meal, three drachms of red storax, and three ounces of oil of sweet almonds; boil the roots well, and beat them to pap, then mingle the other amongst them, and put it warm to the nipples, and it will increase the milk.
And thus, courteous reader, I have at length finished what I have designed; and can truly affirm, that thou hast here those recipes, remedies, and directions given unto thee with respect to child-bearing women, midwives and nurses, that are worth their weight in gold, and will assuredly answer the end, whenever thou hast occasion to make use of them, they not being things taken on trust from tradition or hearsay, but the result and dictates of sound judgment and experience.