Fig. 16.—Two types of easily made leggings, suitable for use at the baby’s birth.
To make these supplies you will need about four pounds of absorbent cotton, 6 or 8 packages of cotton batting, and possibly 40 yards of gauze in addition to cotton flannel for the hose.
In preparing the dressings for sterilization, you may divide them into packages as follows: The sheets in one package; 6 towels in a package; 6 sanitary pads in a package; 2 delivery pads in a package; the gauze squares in two packages; the leggings in one package; the bobbin in one package. The sponges and pledgets should be put up in bags or small pillow cases, 2 or 3 dozen in a bag. Wrap each package in heavy muslin, either new or old, using pieces large enough to well protect the contents from contamination by dust or handling, tie them securely with string and sterilize as follows: Fill a wash boiler about a quarter full of water and fashion a hammock by securely tying a towel or strip of muslin to the handles at each end and allowing it to hang so that the bottom of the hammock is about halfway down in the boiler. As the weight of the dressings makes the hammock sag low in the middle it is a wise precaution to place a rack or support of some kind in the bottom of the boiler, to hold the dressings well above the bubbling water, at the point where they hang lowest. Pile the dressings into the hammock, cover the boiler tightly and keep the water boiling vigorously for an hour; dry the packages in the sun, or by placing them in the oven for a few moments, taking care that they are not loosened or opened, and at the end of twenty-four hours repeat the steaming and drying process, wrap the packages in a clean sheet and put them in a drawer or covered box where they may remain undisturbed until needed. The nail brushes, douche pan and fountain syringe may be wrapped in muslin and sterilized in the same way, or the nurse may boil them when the time comes to use them.
Bed pads made of newspapers offer excellent protection and are, of course, less expensive than those made of cotton. They consist of six or eight thicknesses of newspaper opened out to the full size of the page and covered with a piece of freshly laundered muslin which is folded over the edges and basted in place or held with safety-pins, as shown in Fig. [17]. These pads may be made virtually sterile by ironing them on the muslin side with a very hot iron, folding the ironed surface inside without touching it, ironing the outside after it is folded and wrapping the pads in a clean sheet or muslin, also recently ironed, and putting them away with the other dressings, in a place protected from dust.
Fig. 17.—Reverse side of pad made of newspapers and old muslin to protect bed during a home confinement. If muslin is held in place with safety-pins it may be removed easily, washed and used for another pad. (By courtesy of the Maternity Centre Association.)
Baby Clothes. In planning the baby clothes, there are a few general principles to bear in mind that are of considerable importance to the baby’s welfare. His health actually may be injured by having his clothes too warm or not warm enough, and also if they are tight enough to bind or constrict any part of his body or so ample as to form bunches and wrinkles which will make him uncomfortable and restless.
To be entirely satisfactory his clothes should be simple in design and so made as to slip on easily, fit loosely and at the same time smoothly; the materials should be soft, light and porous. Complete outfits of baby clothes may be bought outright, but few expectant mothers are willing to forego the sheer ecstasy of fashioning the little garments themselves, while they dream dreams of the baby who is to wear them. The following list of garments will meet the baby’s needs, and those which you may make are really very simple:
Two to four dozen diapers, about 18 inches square.
Three flannel bands 6 inches wide and 27 inches long, unhemmed.