It is also advisable in these cases, if respiration is particularly tardy, to inflate the lungs carefully, according to the method before recommended. But the applying hot brandy, flannels wrung out of hot spirits, etc., which have often been used on such occasions, are worse than useless, and ought never to be resorted to.
Infants, in this condition, should not be given up too hastily. Numbers of cases have happened in which a half hour or more has elapsed before respiration has been established. Even a much longer period than thirty minutes has transpired in some cases before the breathing has been established.
The time will come, probably, when electricity will become so well understood as to enable us to make it a valuable agent in cases of still-birth and suspended animation. In the present state of knowledge, however, it is better, I think, to depend on the stimulus of cold water, frictions, and the other means to which I have already referred. But great care is necessary in the management of all such cases; and I have no doubt that many more infants have been killed by too meddlesome and injudicious management, than have been saved by the use of artificial means. The tendency in cases of this kind always has been to do too much. It is one of the greatest acquirements in art to learn when not to do.
WASHING AND DRESSING THE CHILD.
I have a few words to say here on these topics; but I must refer you to my Treatise on Children for a much more full and explicit explanation of them than the limits of this work would admit of. You can all of you who have need obtain that work, I trust; and surely, after you have borne a child, you will feel the greatest interest in learning all that it is possible for you to know respecting the best modes of rearing it.
In general terms, then, I remark, that a child should, soon after its birth, be carefully cleansed by means of pure water and the addition of a little mild soap. The water should not be either too warm or too cold; a moderate temperature, as from 70° to 80° Fah., will be found best. The child should be carefully washed, I said; and in all that is done in handling it, you should remember that it is a frail, delicate thing. Nor need I hint to a mother that inasmuch as some one had to perform all of these small yet multiform offices for us, so should we be willing to perform them for others.
The dress should be loose, and merely sufficient for the purposes of warmth. The child should not be in any way bound with its clothing; nor should a binder or bandage be used.
LETTER XXX.
HYGIENE OF NURSING.
Lactation a Natural and Healthful Process—Rules for Nursing—At what time should Lactation cease?—Food and Drink proper during the Period.
You who reside in the country—as, indeed, most of you do—can hardly credit me when I tell you that it is getting to be quite fashionable in our large cities for a woman not to nurse her own child.