What a Young Wife Ought to Know

by Emma F. Angell Drake

Before confinement two dozen of napkins or pads should be prepared for the mother in the following manner. Get an ordinary grade of cheese cloth, and enclose in a square of it folded corner-wise, a strip of medicated cotton six inches long. These can be used as napkins for the mother safely, as they are aseptic, and after they are soiled can be burned. These are comparatively inexpensive, as a pound of cotton will make the entire number.

If the confinement has been in every way a normal one, the care necessary will be easily given. To keep the baby quiet and contented, and from the beginning free from night nursing, that the mother may be insured a good period of rest, is one of the strongest aids to her speedy recovery. What I mean by freedom from night feeding is this. At ten o’clock the baby may be put to the breast, and then not again until four or five in the morning. That they can be thus taught, and that they will thrive under it, I have many times demonstrated; and that the mother will thrive is a foregone conclusion. This will be further discussed in the chapter on the care of the baby.

No binder for the mother is necessary, as I have in my own practice many times demonstrated. It seems to me a reflection on the creative work of the Maker. They are used and recommended ostensibly as a support, and to insure a good form after getting up; while in reality they defeat the first purpose by crowding down the uterus instead of holding it in place; while the muscles of the abdomen are quite capable of contracting and insuring the former figure, without the use of a binder.

On the day following delivery the physician will see that the patient urinates freely, and the bowels, if they have been kept open before delivery, will need no attention until nature calls for an evacuation. A simple enema of warm water will be all that is needed to aid in this. Immediately after delivery, and after the toilet, to patients who can take it, I recommend a cup of hot milk, to others a cup of beef tea made from beef extract, if more acceptable than the milk.

Until the mother’s milk is established, the food should be light and simple, with not too much of liquid to stimulate too great a flow of milk. If the milk comes with a rush the breasts may be painfully distended, and more may be secreted than the baby will take. If so, all that will be needed is a gentle rubbing of the breasts from the circumference toward the nipple, with the fingers dipped in hot lard. The nurse if well chosen will be schooled in this, and only enough milk should be rubbed out to relieve the breasts, as very soon the little one will need all that is secreted.

After the milk is established the diet can be more generous, and on the eighth day if all goes well, the little mother can sit up in bed to eat her meals; and after the tenth day she may have her wrapper on and slip out into a rocker for a few hours, but she should avoid walking about for some days yet. The reason for this carefulness? The uterus which has enlarged from a tiny organ, weighing a few ounces, to many times its original size and weight, cannot regain its original condition in a day. To quote from Leavitt again. “In normal cases complete involution, (i. e., reduction to normal size), is effected in six or eight weeks. The progress of uterine diminution is graphically shown by Heschl, from the weight of the organ at different periods. Immediately after delivery he found that it weighed twenty-two to twenty-four ounces; in one week it was reduced to nineteen to twenty-one ounces; at the end of the second week it weighed ten to eleven ounces; at the close of the third week it weighed five to seven ounces; and at eight weeks its weight was but a little in excess of that which preceded the first pregnancy.” All this methodical work of nature may be greatly hindered by carelessness and by getting up too early, hence, “make haste slowly.”

The douche in the after care of the parturient has been variously discussed. A hot douche immediately following delivery, to cleanse thoroughly the uterus of any clots or bits of membrane that may be hiding there, is, we believe, productive of no harm, and may obviate much trouble thereafter. A daily douche of hot water containing a little calendula or listerine, is cleansing and is often very grateful to the patient, but is not, in the absence of unnatural conditions, a necessity. Nature undisturbed knows how to take care of the outlets, in cleansing and recuperation, if all has gone well. In many cases the douching is overdone, and is productive of weakness rather than strength.

Should the nipples give trouble, from sensitiveness or fissures, washing them off and dusting them with calendulated boracic acid, or simply bathing with calendula, may heal them very quickly. If this alone fails, before each nursing apply over the nipple a piece of gold-beater’s skin—which may be obtained of any reliable druggist—puncturing with several openings to allow the milk to pass through. Make a fresh application each time, and by thus persistently keeping the lips of the child from the sensitive surfaces they are enabled to heal.

With all these careful directions, dear young mothers, do not be frightened into thinking that the bearing of children is something to be dreaded, and something which involves great danger. It is neither. The bearing of children was intended in our creation and is a natural, physiological process, and the All-wise Creator has amply fitted us for it. If we come to maternity unprepared, it must be because of ignorance on our part how to fit ourselves properly, or from unhygienic and harmful ways of living. Heed the laws of health, keep a sweet, trustful spirit, avoid excitement, consider yourself strong enough for the great office for which nature designed you, and you will be the “joyful mother of children.” Otherwise your joy will be mixed with fear and a thousand foolish worries, that totally unfit you for your high office.

Be happy that you are capable of becoming a mother, be happy when you have the promise, and be happiest of all when you hold your little one in your arms. Train them, all that are given you, to the fear of God, and for the good of mankind, and you will be a great woman, whether your name ever reaches beyond your immediate neighborhood or not. It is a great thing to become a mother of children. To become God’s vicegerent in creating and training souls that may bring gladness and regeneration to the dark places of the earth. Mothers, mothers! rate your privileges high, and live and train to a glorious fulfillment of noble purposes these gifts from God.