THESE Pains, which usually accompany or follow after the BIRTH, are common to all Child-Bed-Women; and in that Natural Sense, as they proceed only from the quantity of BLOOD abounding in the relaxed Womb, distending its MEMBRANES, or arise from its Acrimony; so they gradually cease, and in two or three days quite vanish: Wherefore I am not to insist upon Those, which only affect the debilitated Womb.
BUT it often and too commonly also happens, that another Sort, justly call’d Preternatural AFTER-PAINS, afflict the Woman; which she sometimes feels about her Loins and her Groins, sometimes about the Navel, sometimes all over the Belly, and sometimes in the Womb only, and that sometimes with a little, and sometimes without any Intermission.
THE most common Cause of which PAINS is generally one of the Five following; Viz. 1. The External AIR, especially the more frigid, which easily penetrates into the Womb, if not carefully prevented: 2. Clotted BLOOD, or some other foreign Body left behind in the Womb: 3. Some Acrid, and Mordacious Blood adhering to the Womb, which excites and stimulates Excretion: 4. The SERUM vellicating or twitching the excoriated part of the Womb: Or, 5. WINDS elevated from the Humours fermenting in its Substance; which, together with those turgent Humours, tear its tender TUNICKS.
NOW because these Pains often excruciate the Woman as much as the real Labour-Pains do, and since they are not always without Danger, Necessity demands that they should be either cured, or at least mitigated: Which may be most properly done, by convenient relaxing and attenuating Medicines outwardly applied, as well as inwardly taken, when the Case does not require the Hand-Cure, or manual Operation.
HOWEVER, yet more particularly, in respect of the Pains, from what Cause soever they may proceed, CLYSTERS of Milk with the Yolks of Eggs are proper; as are also emollient Fomentations mix’d with attenuating and Uterine Medicines; a Fumigation of BRANDY; a Decoction of the Recrements of the Regulus of Antimony; such things being of a sulphurous Nature: And moreover, in fine, all AFTER-PAINS are eased by Aromatick and Carminative Remedies; such as Seeds of Anise, Carway, Cummin, Fennel, Penny-Royal, Roman-Camomil, &c. infus’d or boil’d in Wine or Water, adding thereto a very little Mace and Saffron.
CHAP. III.
Of the Suppression of the LOCHIA, or Child-Bed-Purgations.
THE LOCHIA are nothing else, but the ignobler part of the Blood and congested Humours, which after the BIRTH Nature evacuates and discharges out of the Uterine Vessels, in consequence of the Divulsion and Separation of the Placenta from the Womb. Which LOCHIA however differ always according to the Constitution and Disposition of the Woman, and that not only in Quantity, but also in Quality: For if the PATIENT be otherways Healthy, and Well-disposed, these are at first of a florid rosy Colour, degenerating day by day into a Pale-dye; Whereas if otherways, they are sometimes Aqueous, and sometimes Bilous, Melancholick, &c. And, according also to the usual Habit of Body, and Way of Living, some Women flood more plentifully, others more sparingly; some a longer, and others a shorter Time: as for Instance——
A Woman given to Ease, and high Living, being delivered of a Male, may cleanse from twenty to thirty Days; and if of a Female, from thirty to forty-two Days at most, however still declining in Quantity from Day to Day: Whereas another given to Exercise, may flood only from eight to fifteen Days; and that also perhaps more sparingly, or by Intervals of one or two Days. But it oftentimes happens, that this Evacuation is either suppressed in Whole, or in Part; of which Suppression or Preternatural Retention, I am now about to speak.——
FIRST then, the Cause of this Evil, proceeds either from an Obstruction of the Uterine Vessels, occasion’d by thick BLOOD stopping the Passages: Or, Secondly, from a Constriction or Compression of the same Vessels, occasioned by an oblique Situation of the Womb, or by cold Air, cold Drink, or the like, which readily constrict their Orifices, as well as contract the Womb itself: Or, Thirdly and lastly, the Cause may proceed from the BLOOD’s being retracted and converted to some other Part of the Body; which is most commonly occasion’d by some Passion or Perturbation of Mind, that may not only turn the Shock of the BLOOD to the Breasts, but also retard the Motion, and thicken the Mass of the same BLOOD.