If the patient can find time to lie down a number of times during the day, removing her clothing at each time, she will find the practice a good one.
CRAMPS IN THE LOWER LIMBS.
Toward the close of pregnancy, cramps may occur in the lower extremities, because of the pressure of the child upon the large nerves that pass down them. This is seldom very troublesome, and cannot, of course, be altogether prevented. Too great fatigue, and any thing that tends to depress the general health, will at least make the matter worse than it otherwise would be.
PAIN IN THE BREASTS.
Mastodynia, or pain in the breasts, is more common in the first pregnancy. Compression by clothing may cause the difficulty. Washing the parts with cold water, and wet bandages or cloths worn upon the parts, are the means to be used. If the pain is of a spasmodic kind, it may be best in some cases to use warm fomentations.
HYSTERIA.
There appears to be with many a greater tendency to hysterical symptoms during pregnancy, than at other times.
Hysterical females are, for the most part, those who live a life of excitement, attending frequently balls, theaters, and public exhibitions late at night, and especially such as are much addicted to tea and coffee drinking, the use of concentrated and stimulating food, and have little exercise in the open air.
Treatment.—Medicines, especially the preparations of opium, also have a tendency to cause hysterical symptoms. Pregnant women should, then, as far as possible, avoid these causes of so pitiable a disease. Whether in pregnancy, or at other times, hysteria cannot come upon those who live correctly, and maintain at all times good and permanent health. I will here further remark, that all novel reading should be avoided during pregnancy; and the less the better, I may say, at all times, of such novels as ninety-nine hundredths of all that are put forth at the present day.