Those who have not been accustomed to bathing should not begin the practice during pregnancy, and in any case great care should be exercised during the latter months. It is better to preserve cleanliness by sponging with tepid water than by entire baths. Foot-baths are always dangerous. Sea-bathing sometimes causes miscarriage, but sea air and the sponging of the body with salt water are beneficial. The shower-bath is of course too great a shock to the system, and a very warm bath is too relaxing. In some women of a nervous temperament, a lukewarm bath taken occasionally at night during pregnancy has a calming influence. This is especially the case in the first and last month. But women of a lymphatic temperament and of a relaxed habit of body are always injured by the bath.
VENTILATION.
We have spoken of the benefits of outdoor air during pregnancy. Attention should also be directed to keeping the atmosphere in the sitting and sleeping rooms of the house fresh. This can only be accomplished by constantly changing it. The doors and windows of every room, while unoccupied, should be kept thrown open in the summer-time, and opened sufficiently often in the winter to wash out the apartments several times a day with fresh air. The extremes of heat and cold are to be, with equal care, avoided. The house should be kept light. Young plants will not grow well in the dark. Neither will the young child nor its mother flourish without sunlight. The ancients were so well aware of this, that they constructed on the top of each house a solarium, or solar air-bath, where they basked daily, in thin attire, in the direct rays of the sun.
SLEEP.
During pregnancy a large amount of sleep is required. It has a sedative influence upon the disturbed nervous system of the mother. It favors, by the calmness of all the functions which attends it, the growth of the fœtus. Neither the pursuit of pleasure in the evening, nor the observance of any trite maxims in regard to early rising in the morning, should be allowed to curtail the hours devoted to slumber. Pregnant women have an instinctive desire to lie abed late, which, like the other promptings of nature during this period, should not be disregarded. At least eight hours out of the twenty-four can be profitably spent in bed. No night-watching ought ever to be undertaken during pregnancy.
Feather beds should be avoided. The heat which they maintain about the body is inconvenient and dangerous, predisposing to flooding and exhausting perspirations. The hair or sponge mattress is to be preferred. The bed-clothing should not be too heavy. Blankets are to be employed rather than coverlids, as they are lighter and more permeable to perspiration. The mattress and cover should be well aired during the day. The sleeping-room should be capacious and well ventilated, and no curtains permitted about the bed.
Occasional rest is also necessary in the daytime. A nap of an hour or two upon a sofa or lounge will then prove very refreshing. In the earlier months of pregnancy it will tend to prevent miscarriage, and in the latter months to relieve the distress consequent upon the increased size of the womb. It is not unusual, as the close of pregnancy approaches, for a feeling of suffocation to ensue when the woman attempts to lie down. This may be overcome by supporting the back and shoulders with cushions and pillows. Or a bed-chair may be employed. This, if well constructed and covered, will often be found very grateful at night, in the last few weeks of pregnancy.
THE MIND.
A tranquil mind is of the first importance to the pregnant woman. Gloomy forebodings should not be encouraged. Pregnancy and labor are not, we repeat, diseased conditions. They are healthful processes, and should be looked upon as such by every woman. Bad labors are very infrequent. It is as foolish to dread them, as it is for the railway traveller to give way to misgivings in regard to his safety. Instead of desponding, science bids the woman to look forward with cheerfulness and hope to the joys of maternity.
The bad effects of fear upon the mother's mind are illustrated by Plutarch, who, in his Life of Publicola, mentions that, 'at a time when a superstitious fear overran the city of Rome, all the women then pregnant brought forth imperfect children, and were prematurely delivered.' But we have already spoken, in treating of mothers' marks, of the influence of mental emotions over the unborn child, and the necessity of avoiding their exciting causes.