Advice to a wife and mother in two parts

by Pye Henry Chavasse

259. A lady ought to look well to the purity of her pump-water, and to ascertain that no drain either enters or percolates, or contaminates in any way whatever, the spring; if it should do so, disease, such as either cholera, or diarrhœa, or dysentery, or diphtheria, or scarlet fever, or gastric fever, will, one or the other, as a matter of course, ensue. If there be the slightest danger or risk of drain contamination, whenever it be practicable, let the drain be taken up and be examined, and let the defect be carefully rectified. When it be impracticable to have the drain taken up and examined, then let the pump-water, before drinking it, be always previously boiled. The boiling of the water, as experience teaches, has the power either of destroying or of making innocuous the specific organic fecal life poison, which propagates in drain contamination the diseases above enumerated.

NECESSITY OF OCCASIONAL REST.

260. A lady who is pregnant ought, for half an hour each time, to lie one or two hours every day on the sofa. This, if there be either a bearing down of the womb, or if there be a predisposition to a miscarriage, will be particularly necessary. I should recommend this plan to be adopted throughout the whole period of the pregnancy: in the early months, to prevent a miscarriage, and, in the latter months, on account of the increased weight and size of the womb.

261. There is, occasionally, during the latter months, a difficulty in lying down; the patient feeling as though, every time she makes the attempt, she should be suffocated. When such be the case, she ought to rest herself upon the sofa, and be propped up with cushions, as I consider rest at different periods of the day necessary and beneficial. If there be any difficulty in lying down at night, a bed-rest, well covered with pillows, will be found a great comfort.

DIETARY.

262. An abstemious diet, during the early period of pregnancy, is essential, as the habit of body, at that time, is usually feverish and inflammatory. I should therefore recommend abstinence from beer, porter, and spirits. Let me, in this place, urge a lady, during her pregnancy, not to touch spirits, such as either brandy or gin; they will only inflame her blood, and will poison and make puny her unborn babe; they will only give her false spirits, and will depress her in an increased ratio as soon as the effects of the brandy or of the gin have passed away. She ought to eat meat only but once a day. Rich soups and highly-seasoned stews and dishes are injurious.

263. A lady who is enceinte may depend upon it that the less stimulants she takes at these times the better it will be both for herself and for her infant; the more kind will be her labor and her “getting about,” and the more vigorous and healthy will be her child.

264. It is a mistaken notion that she requires more nourishment during early pregnancy than at any other time; she, if anything, requires less. It has often been asserted that a lady who is pregnant ought to eat very heartily, as she has two to provide for. When it is taken into account that during pregnancy she “ceases to be unwell,” and therefore that there is no drain on that score; and when it is also considered how small the ovum containing the embryo is, not being larger for the first two or three months than a hen’s egg, it will be seen how futile is the assertion. A wife, therefore, in early pregnancy, does not require more than at another time; if anything, she requires less. Again: during pregnancy, especially in the early stages, she is more or less sick, feverish, and irritable, and a superabundance of food would only add fuel to the fire, and would increase her sickness, fever, and irritability. Moreover, she frequently suffers from heartburn and from indigestion. Can anything be more absurd, when such is the case, than to overload a stomach already loaded with food which it is not able to digest? No, let nature in this, as in everything else, be her guide, and she will not then go far wrong! When she is further advanced in her pregnancy,—that is to say, when she has quickened,—her appetite generally improves, and she is much better in health than she was before; indeed, after she has quickened, she is frequently in better health than she ever has been. The appetite is now increased. Nature points out that she requires more nourishment than she did at first; for this reason, the fœtus is now rapidly growing in size, and consequently requires more support from the mother. Let the food, therefore, of a pregnant woman be now increased in quantity, but let it be both light and nourishing. Occasionally, at this time, she has taken a dislike to meat; if she has, she ought not to be forced to eat it, but should have instead, poultry, game, fish, chicken-broth, beef-tea, new milk, farinaceous food, such as rice, sago, batter puddings, and, above all, if she has a craving for it, good sound, ripe fruit.

265. Roasted apples, ripe pears, raspberries, strawberries, grapes, tamarinds, figs, Muscatel raisins, stewed rhubarb, stewed pears, stewed prunes, the inside of ripe gooseberries, and the juice of oranges, are, during pregnancy, particularly beneficial; they both quench the thirst and tend to open the bowels.

266. The food of a pregnant woman cannot be too plain; high-seasoned dishes ought, therefore, to be avoided. Although the food be plain, it must be frequently varied. She should ring the changes upon butcher’s meat, poultry, game, and fish. It is a mistaken notion, that people ought to eat the same food over and over again, one day as another. The stomach requires variety, or disease, as a matter of course, will ensue.