Getting ready to be a mother

by Carolyn Conant Van Blarcom

Unhappily a great many pregnant women are constipated, particularly during the later weeks, while women who have always had a tendency of this kind may have trouble with their bowels from the very beginning of pregnancy. Your bowels should move regularly every day, and to this end you should attempt to empty them at the same hour each day, immediately after breakfast being the best time. The importance of regularity in making the attempt cannot be overemphasized, even though the bowels do not always move.

The measures which tend to prevent constipation, as already pointed out, are drinking plenty of fluids, and eating fresh fruit, coarse vegetables and bulky cereals such as bran; also taking a glass of hot or cold water just before going to bed and the first thing in the morning. You should not take enemas or cathartics without your doctor’s order, but you may safely increase the amount of fluids which you drink and the bulk of your food, in order to regulate your bowels.

Senna and prunes cooked together prove to be helpful in keeping the bowels regular and they are entirely harmless. A simple way of preparing them for this purpose is to pour a quart of boiling water over an ounce of senna leaves and allow them to stand for about two hours. A pound of well washed prunes should soak overnight in this liquor, after it has been strained, and then cooked in it until tender. They may be sweetened with two tablespoonfuls of brown sugar, and the flavor improved by adding a stick of cinnamon or slice of lemon while they are cooking. Half a dozen of these prunes, with some of the syrup, may be taken at the evening meal to start with, and increased or decreased in number as necessary.

Clothes. The chief purpose of clothes under all conditions is to aid in keeping the body warm, thus helping to preserve an even circulation of the blood and the activity of the sweat glands. As has been pointed out, this is of especial importance during pregnancy. The expectant mother’s clothes should be not only sufficiently warm, but they should be equally warm over her entire body. They should be light and porous, and fairly loose, so as not to interfere with the circulation or other bodily functions. There must be no pressure on chest or abdomen; no tight garters, belts, collars or shoes.

The clothes of the mother-to-be, like every other detail of her care, must be adapted to her surroundings and mode of living. If her house is well and evenly heated during the cold months, she may quite safely dress lightly while indoors; if it is not, she should wear underwear with high neck, long sleeves and drawers, both indoors and out, except when the weather is warm enough to cause perspiration. At all times, however, the warmth of her clothing should be suited to the temperature of the home, the climate and the state of the weather.

Remembering that it is important for you to keep up the diversions and amusements that you enjoy, it is worth while to have your clothes as pretty and becoming as possible, for you are much more likely to go about and mingle with your friends if you feel that you are becomingly and well dressed. At the same time your clothes should be so made that their weight will hang from the shoulders instead of from the waistband.

And that brings us to the question of corsets, a much discussed garment. Women who have not been accustomed to wearing corsets will scarcely feel the need of adopting them during pregnancy except, perhaps, during the later weeks when the heavy abdomen needs to be supported for the sake of comfort. This need is felt particularly by women who have had children and whose abdominal walls are somewhat weakened in consequence.

If you have been wearing comfortable, well fitting corsets, you probably will not feel the need of making a change until the third or fourth month. But by this time the baby will have pushed up out of the lower pelvis into the abdomen and your corsets then, if you wear any, must be so constructed that they will not compress nor disguise your figure, but will provide support and accommodate themselves to an abdomen that is steadily increasing in size and changing in shape. Such corsets are made of soft material; have elastic inserts and have lacings at the sides as well as in the back. They come well down and fit snugly over the hips. (See Fig. [10].) Some women find comfort in attaching shoulder straps to their corsets thus suspending some of the abdominal weight from the shoulders. But as a rule, the most comfortable arrangement is a short-waisted maternity corset worn with a brassière that supports the breasts and does not compress the nipples.

I hope this description will make clear to you why the same style corsets as you ordinarily wear cannot be satisfactory during pregnancy, no matter how large they are, and may even prove harmful.