Until recently mothers were advised to employ a very elaborate treatment for drying up the breasts. The diet was restricted, and as far as possible liquids of every kind were forbidden; strong purgatives were administered daily; and, in addition, the breasts were covered with some ointment, swathed in cotton, and tightly compressed with a bandage. Fortunately, we now realize that none of these measures are required. When nursing is discontinued the breasts are apt to become distended and uncomfortable. They require support while the distention lasts, which is never very long, and if they become painful, medicine may be employed to give relief. But other measures, some of which occasionally do harm, are absolutely unnecessary, for, at whatever period of lactation the breasts cease to be used, they dry up spontaneously.
GLOSSARY
[Footnote: The Century Dictionary has been freely used for these definitions.]
ABNORMAL.—Irregular; deviating from the natural or standard type.
ABORTIFACIENT.—Whatever is used to produce an abortion.
ABORTION.—The expulsion of the embryo during the first four months of pregnancy.
AFTER-BIRTH.—The mass of tissue expelled from the uterus at the end of labor. It includes the placenta, the umbilical cord, and the membranes of the ovum.
ALIMENTARY CANAL.—The digestive tract. It begins with the mouth, includes the stomach and the intestines, and ends with the rectum.
AMNIOTIC FLUID.—The liquid inclosed within the amniotic membrane.
AMNIOTIC MEMBRANE.—The innermost of the two membranes which envelop the embryo; the lining membrane of the closed sac familiarly called "the bag of waters."