Phosphates are generally taken into the system as phosphate of lime contained in certain foods we eat, as fish, lobster, beef, Southern corn, peas and beans, barley, sweet potatoes and oats.
It is obvious from what was said of painful and prolonged childbirth, that the pregnant woman should avoid as much as possible nitrogenous or muscle-making food; she must starve her muscular system as much as it is possible for her to do, and the result will be that her muscles will become soft and relaxable and that means a comparatively easy or painless childbirth. In Europe, the peasantry who eat meat sparingly or very seldom, have comparatively little pain, because vegetables enter largely into their daily diet; the same is true in Asiatic countries where the staple is rice, the throes of labor are very light. The squaws of our Indian tribes are remarkable for the little pain they suffer in childbirth and for the shortness of its duration, and the recuperation is also a speedy one, for an Indian woman will travel or be about in a few days after her confinement with her pappoose on her back.
I would recommend to the pregnant woman to live as much as it is possible for her to do on a fruit and vegetable diet. Her meals must be taken at regular intervals, otherwise derangement of the stomach is sure to follow. Excess in eating even the plainest kind of food must be studiously avoided, and all food must be eaten slowly and thoroughly masticated. Wheaten bread or rice and milk diluted with water should form the main diet. Thoroughly cooked garden vegetables and fresh, ripe fruit like apples, grapes, peaches, plums, etc., should be used in summer, and some of the same fruits canned in winter, or dried fruits slowly simmered until they are soft; it is always better to soak dried fruit for several hours or overnight before it is put over to boil.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
WHILE IN CHILDBED.
By childbed is usually meant the period of delivery, but I mean to include the lying-in period, from the moment the mother has the first signs of her approaching delivery, to the time when she is supposed to have fully recovered and is able to be out of her bed and about.
If the suggestions that were thrown out in a former chapter are complied with, there will be little reason for uneasiness for the prospective mother, but it will be conducive to her welfare if she be buoyant in spirit and hopeful of the best possible result.
The nurse should be a quiet, orderly woman, and neither too young or too old; she should have had experience in nursing during confinements and taking care of newborn babies; with all this she should not be set in her ways, but should be accommodating and active, so that she will carry out conscientiously the instructions of the attending physician.