X. SHE must not lace herself (as before) with Whalebone-Stays, nor use Busks; which may not only spoil her Breasts and Belly, but also mis-shape the Infant, if Abortion does not immediately follow.

XI. SHE ought discreetly to suppress all Anger, Passion, and other Perturbations of Mind, and avoid entertaining too serious or melancholick Thoughts; since all such tend to impress a Depravity of Nature upon the Infant’s Mind, and Deformity on its Body.

XII. SHE is not to be too Busy, or Attentive, fixing her Eyes too much upon any one Object; especially on deformed ugly Persons, or any such accidental disagreeable Sight.

XIII. AS to her Appetite, she ought to set the Delphick Oracle before her (Nil nimium cupito) and desire nothing but what she can have to her Satisfaction.

XIV. SHE must carefully avoid all strong purging Medicines,[[56]] especially before the fourth, and after the sixth Month: And even Then also, unless a Necessity of turgid Matter, or unfix’d Humours, oblige her to it, or require Evacuation. She is also likewise to abstain from all Phlebotomy[[57]], especially in the latter Months.

XV. AS to her Exercise, of what kind soever, the following general Rule may suffice; viz. the first Month she ought not to exercise herself at all: The second, but seldom and slowly: The third, oftner and briskly: The fourth, fifth, and sixth, moderately and boldly: The seventh, eighth, and to the middle of the ninth, she should study by degrees to reduce Herself discreetly, and abstain from all her wonted Exercise, and act very circumspectly in all Regards; especially[[58]] the eighth Month, which is the most dangerous and troublesome of all the Time of Pregnancy.

XVI. LASTLY, Let her State of Health be never so good, she ought to take proper Medicines to strengthen the Womb, as well as the Fœtus, in order to prevent Accidents, which may happen to the strongest Woman.

BUT as to Women of more tender Constitutions, they are not only subject to the common Symptoms, but often liable also to acute Diseases; such as Fevers, Pleurisies, Squincies, Inflammations, Epilepsies, Apoplexies, Convulsions, Contractions of the Limbs, Joints, &c. In which Cases, I may reasonably recommend the Patient to the ablest Physician; since none but the most Judicious ought to undertake them in such critical Conjunctures. Because it is no ways Safe to use the same Means and Medicines with the Pregnant Woman (which those incident Diseases would otherways regularly require;) without a due Distinction and a nice Regard had to her other Habits of Body.

THESE tender Women are also sometimes seiz’d with Chronical Distempers; such as intermitting Fevers, lingring Coughs, &c: But, in those Cases, Prescriptions are not so Proper or Convenient, unless the Distemper be very severe and extremely prejudicial to the Foetus, because they commonly wear off before the Delivery.

HOWEVER, be the Constitution, or Condition, of the Woman as it will, I mean, Strong or Weak, Healthy or Sickly, all prudent Parents, who desire to be bless’d with comely, tractable, and hopeful Children, ought not only to perform their Nuptial Duties with great Serenity of Mind, but also to take mutual Care to prevent and suppress all Family-Tumults or Domestick Storms: For there never ought so much as a Cloud to appear in their Conjugal Society; since all such unhappy Accidents strongly affect the growing Infant, and intail the same Qualities of Disposition almost indelibly imprinted upon it.