Food and Drink.—It would always be better, so far as food is concerned, for the patient to fast a meal or two before labor comes on. She should, however, be allowed all the drink she desires, pure soft water being the best she can have. If she drink pretty freely, it will be of essential service to her in keeping off feverishness, and in helping the renal organs to act properly. If the pains are tardy, taking now and then a drink of cold water, even against the inclination, will help on the pains. Even ice is used with good effect for this purpose.
LETTER XXVIII.
MANAGEMENT AFTER DELIVERY.
Importance of Attention to this Period—Evils of too much Company—Bathing—The Bandages, Compresses, etc.—Sleep—Sitting up soon after the Birth—Walking about—The Food and Drink.
Supposing that the mother has been safely delivered, the child separated, and the after-birth cast off, what advice have we to give in regard to her recovery?
I have before remarked that the birth of the secundines is the most dangerous part of labor, although not the most painful. I have now to remark, that the real danger in midwifery does not commence until after the whole birth is completed. Childbed fever, inflammation and abscess of the breasts, these are the sad mishaps which we have to fear in these circumstances, and for which I feel an anxious solicitude in your behalf.
You may think me strange when I inform you, that I have had more trouble in the practice of midwifery from the one circumstance of the woman having too much mental excitement within a few days after delivery, than from all other things combined. I am sure I am not mistaken when I assert that I have known more accidents and mishaps to occur from this one cause of seeing company too soon after the birth, than from all other causes put together. So important do I consider it for you to keep, as it were, quiet in this respect, I should think my labor in writing these letters a hundred-fold rewarded, if I could be successful in warning you of the danger of over-excitement at the time when you are getting up from confinement. As the most important advice, then, which I can give in regard to all the subjects connected with midwifery, Do not allow yourself to see company for many days after the birth.
“Most of the diseases which affect a woman in childbed,” says the great Velpeau, “may be attributed to the thousands of visits of friends, neighbors, or acquaintances, or the ceremony with which she is too often oppressed; she wishes to keep up the conversation; her mind becomes excited, the fruit of which is headache and agitation; the slightest indiscreet word worries her; the slightest emotions of joy agitate her in the extreme; the least opposition instantly makes her uneasy, and I can affirm, that among the numerous cases of peritonitis met with at the Hospital de Perfectionnement, there are very few whose origin is unconnected with some moral commotion.”
Is it not possible to change the fashion in regard to this matter? This remains wholly with yourselves; for we of the masculine gender have nothing to do with it. Are you not all sisters? Why, then, be offended with each other if you do not go to see the sick woman for a whole month after her child is born. Could you not write her now and then a friendly note, or send her some little delicacy to eat, which would be evidence enough that you had not forgotten her? I am aware there are among your sex a certain set of gossiping idlers, who do not know how to kill time in any better way than to be gadding abroad when they are least needed. If one is really sick and needs aid, they are the last persons in the world to leave their homes; they are good for nothing among the sick. To such women I care to say but little, for I consider the task of reforming them a very hopeless one, as all experience proves. Especially where a new method of treatment, as, for example, the water-cure, is practiced, do these twattlers gad about, making mischief wherever they go.
Bathing.—It is no new thing for a woman to be bathed, and that in cold water, soon after delivery. It was practiced among the Romans, and, as we have seen in another part of these letters, is still the custom among several of the savage nations.
I need not remind you, however, that this practice has, for a long time at least, found no place among the more enlightened portions of our race; that instead of cold water being regarded as a most estimable remedy in childbirth, it has been considered as a very dangerous agent, which, in truth, it is when improperly administered. Many of you can but too easily call to mind the old notions which were instilled into your minds on this subject; notions which you now know to be not only erroneous, but sadly mischievous when carried out in practice.