This is a remarkable case, indeed, in some respects seems almost incredible. The theory expounded certainly deserves consideration. If there is any reasonable method by which the throes of parturition can be mitigated, women want to and ought to know it.
I have tested this theory thoroughly, and know many physicians who have instructed their patients accordingly. For a number of years I have been teaching it to women in conversations, and have many testimonials of good results. One commencing to practice this method at the beginning of pregnancy need not eat so plentifully of the fruit as did Mrs. R.
A woman who, all her life, has violated natural laws, and consequently has been an invalid, is diseased by deleterious diet and deformed by unnatural modes of dress, can not expect to have a perfectly painless labor. Even such can, however, do much to mitigate her suffering by fidelity to these teachings. Like Mrs. R., comfort, health, strength and vivacity can be obtained during pregnancy, and the agony of parturition, that usually continues from twenty-four to forty-eight hours, can be reduced both in duration and violence. The consequence will be a speedy restoration of the organs to a normal condition.
For further proof of this theory, the reader’s attention is called to the following notable experience: A Mrs. W., the wife of a prominent judge, in the northern part of Michigan, is a woman of fine physique and apparently robust health. She is the mother of four children. With the first three, she suffered prolonged and agonizing labor, lasting in the expulsive stage from thirty to fifty hours. Becoming pregnant again, her heart was filled with terror lest she should not survive the ordeal. She was four months advanced in pregnancy when she became acquainted with the “fruit diet” theory, and lived accordingly, subsisting almost entirely upon fruits, rice and vegetables.
Her health became unusually good. The pains, aches and discomforts she had experienced during the last months of previous pregnancies were entirely wanting. The time of delivery had arrived. At five o’clock in the morning she was suddenly awakened with a severe cramp in her limbs. She arose and walked the floor without relief. Returning to the bed, she obtained ease by applications of warmth and friction.
She fell into a quiet sleep, which lasted, perhaps, half an hour. From this she was awakened by a labor pain. The doctor was hastily summoned, and although he lived across the street and came at once, the child was born before his arrival. This occurred before seven o’clock, less than two hours from the time she was awakened with the cramps. She avers that the effort that expelled the child could not be called a pain, only a sense of discomfort, or of continued pressure. Her child is now three years old, is unusually healthy and robust. The bones were pliable at birth, but soon solidified. When it is known that many of the bones of the human body under any circumstances are not fully ossified until about the 20th year, it need be no source of uneasiness that the osseous structure is more than usually pliable at birth. In most cases the gain for the child is as great as for the mother.
Mrs. K. with her first child had the usual three months of “morning sickness,” which, in her case, continued the entire day. She suffered fearfully from bloating and lameness, so much so that she was unable to leave the house during the last weeks of gestation. She bathed in warm water only frequently enough to answer the demands of cleanliness. Her labor was both severe and prolonged. She had convulsions, and after forty-eight hours of agony the child was removed with instruments. Her confinement was followed by broken breasts, metritis and cellulitis, and she was unable to sit up a moment until the child was five weeks old.
With her second child she bathed freely in cold water and lived upon the “fruit and rice” diet. She had no morning sickness, no heartburn, no neuralgia, and scarcely any bloating or lameness. It may be said that the child was born without any labor as she had no sensation of pain. She had slept unusually well, awakened about three o’clock with the “breaking of the waters,” called her husband, who sprang from the bed, but could not get dressed to call her mother who was upstairs, before the lusty cry of the little stranger pressed him into the work of an amateur accoucheur. She used cold water freely after her confinement, and had no gathered breasts, no inflammation, or trouble of any kind. Felt able to get about the house the following day; seemed quite absurd to lie in bed. She speaks of it joyfully as one of the greatest triumphs of her life, and preaches the doctrine to all she meets. She could not be convinced that there is any need of childbirth being accompanied by severe pain.
The following case came under my notice, and proves the efficacy of the “fruit diet.”
Mrs. L. T. Colburn, living in Eureka, Kansas, is a woman, short, fleshy, and what is called solid built. She has five children: with the first four, her labors were severe and prolonged. Some of them only terminated with instrumental interference. Relays of neighboring women were worn out in rendering her the customary aid, and some of her male relatives had to be pressed into service. During her last pregnancy, accidentally, she lived upon fruit and rice, and her experience was as unlike the former deliveries as night is unlike day. Her husband kept a grocery and provision store, and the family lived over the store; Mrs. C. was in the grocery frequently. She had a craving for lemons and oranges, and ate of them very freely, often consuming half a dozen of either at one time. Her greediness for these fruits became the by-word of friends and neighbors.