A mother’s prime of bliss,
When to her eager lips is brought
Her infant’s thrilling kiss.”
Proper bathing and diet are as essential after as before confinement. At least once a day the patient requires a bath. Ordinarily use tepid water. Sponge and dry a portion of the body at a time, keeping the balance protected. If there is heat in the back, bathe it several times a day. Should the patient be nervous and uneasy, try dry hand friction. A compress, too, is often serviceable, worn across the back for two or three hours, followed by bathing and rubbing. The breasts should be bathed frequently, and the colder the water the better. This prevents sensitiveness to cold, and may consequently prevent gathered breasts. Three to five days after confinement the patient can be put into a sitz-bath with benefit. Let the temperature of the water be from 85° to 95°. This bath is restful, cleansing and restorative, and is really as beneficial after as before parturition. A woman can often sit in a bath for a few moments when the same time spent in a chair would prove injurious.
Change the linen of bed and person daily, and the napkins every three or four hours. Keep the room light and well ventilated. The temperature of the room should never exceed 70°. A few years since not a ray of light or a breath of fresh air was allowed in the parturient room, and if the woman was to touch cold water, it was deemed sure death. In some parts of this country, within twenty years, the bed even was not changed for nine days after confinement. With frequent bathing and a constant supply of fresh air the patient will not be sensitive to cold, and inflammation and other post partum diseases will in consequence be rare.
The vagina must be syringed at least twice a day with water in which there are a few drops of carbolic acid. Use a fountain syringe, and have the patient recline over a bed pan. Thus the parts will be kept cleansed, and carbolic acid prevents septic poisoning. If the bowels do not move naturally by the third or fourth day, give an enema, one quart of tepid water. The regimen advised in this book having been followed, one will rarely be troubled with constipation. Beware of cathartics. Most of them have a specific action upon the uterus as well as upon the bowels, and will do harm. This is notably the case with aloes and podophyllum.
The food must be simple in character and easy of digestion, especially until after the milk is established. Bran or graham gruel is the very best food the first day or two. Having been withheld from the diet during pregnancy, on account of containing the phosphates which have a tendency to harden the bones, it should now be taken for that very purpose.
Many are prejudiced against graham gruel, yet it has been proven that most women relish it better than anything else after labor. In the Home of the Friendless, Leavenworth, Kan., are many cases of confinement every year. Almost universally the inmates are prejudiced against graham in any form, and rarely taste it before confinement. A former matron had been a nurse in a Water Cure. Invariably she brought a bowl of graham gruel to the mother a few hours after delivery. She never had one express any repugnance to it. On the contrary, they would say, “That tastes good;” “That goes right to the spot;” “Can any one eat too much of anything that is so good?” and similar expressions, showing that there was an actual relish for the dish. The gruel should be made thin at first, and without cream or milk. After a few days it can be made thick like mush, and eaten with fruit or cream and sugar. New milk, wheatlet, cracked wheat, barley, oatmeal, graham gems, fruit, etc., can be added to the diet as desired.
There is no need of milk fever. Women have been led to expect more or less constitutional disturbance accompanying the advent of the milk. With the bathing and diet recommended above, even if she has not had the best conditions during pregnancy, one hardly realizes any change in the system at that time. When patients were fed on brandy panada, wine whey, strong tea, and beef broth, were kept in unventilated rooms, deprived of water externally and internally, and besides were poisoned with drugs, it is no wonder they had milk fever, and were liable to other post partum diseases.
The child should be placed to the breast several times a day, even if there seems to be no milk. The act of nursing stimulates secretion, prevents engorgement, and from sympathetic relation causes uterine contractions. When the breasts become filled and are knotty and tender, bathe them in hot water and have them drawn. If the child does not empty them sufficiently, the nurse or some member of the family should do it. This is better than a breast pump, and can be easily done by remembering to lap the tongue around the nipple until it meets the upper lip.