CONSTIPATION.
During the early months of pregnancy, there appears to be a greater tendency to constipation than in the latter months, a fact which is the direct reverse of what we should expect from a priori reasoning. But during the whole period, constipation is more apt to occur than at other times.
Constipation is exceedingly common among all classes of females in this country at the present day. The American people have such a predilection for fine food, it is a hard matter to make any great change in this respect. It is in the dietetic habits, more than in any other, that we are to look for the causes of this evil.
Superfine flour is, I hold, the greatest of all causes of constipation. I know tea and coffee, which are astringent articles, have a tendency to cause this condition of the bowels; and the same may be said of idleness and physical inactivity; but too great richness of food—and superfine flour is the article most concerned in this—is the great cause of constipation. Our country abounds with it everywhere. By our numerous railroads and canals, superfine flour is transported from one end of the country to the other, so that in large districts, where formerly the people were in the habit of eating coarse bread, as of rye and Indian, and were consequently more healthy, they now use the superfine. Even a beggar would sneer at one for offering him brown bread.
Constipation, common as it is everywhere among females, is still more common in pregnancy. This arises, first, from the pressure of the enlarged womb upon the lower bowel; and second, there being a new action set up in the uterus, there is, as a natural consequence, a greater tendency to torpor in the bowels; but the principal cause is that of the pressure.
This condition of the bowels induces of itself numerous other difficulties. Headache is often brought on solely by constipation; that is, in many cases we remove the constipation, and the headache is sure to leave with it. Sickness of the stomach and vomiting are always aggravated, and often caused by it. The same also may be said of heart-burn, palpitation, and fainting. Sleeplessness, and, in fact, almost every one of the disorders of pregnancy, may be said to be either caused directly, or greatly aggravated, by constipation of the bowels. Even miscarriage has been known to be induced by it.
Some persons have gone an almost incredible length of time without any movement of the bowels. A whole week is not uncommon. Dr. Dewees mentions a case of fourteen days, and no doubt there have been those who have gone one to three whole weeks.
Treatment.—What have we to do in order to cure constipation of the bowels? Does not every person of common sense understand at this day, that the more we dose the system for constipation, the more we may? Let those answer who have tried these things. Always, other things being equal, the more we take drugs for constipation, the worse it grows. We must therefore look to some other means of cure.
Constipation of the bowels may always be cured, and this by the most simple means. Dr. Dewees mentions a case where a lady had suffered three successive miscarriages from this cause, and by the constant use of brown bread, drinking only water, and taking no animal food or broths—taking now and then a little castor-oil, or the like, which, however, he did not reckon upon as having done any material good—enabled her to pass safely through the whole time. We need here only mention, in general terms, that constipation in pregnancy is to be cured just the same as constipation in any other case. Brown bread, fruits, and vegetables, with a very moderate use of milk, if the patient desires it; regular exercise, the hip-bath, wet girdle, injections of cold water, or tepid, if that is preferred—these are the means to be used. The brown wheat or rye mush will be found most excellent. No woman, if she can have brown bread, and occasionally an injection, need ever suffer from constipation of the bowels.