Advice to a wife and mother in two parts

by Pye Henry Chavasse

Pearl Barley, one ounce;

Water, one pint and a half:

Boil for a quarter of an hour, then strain, and sweeten either with sugar candy or lump sugar.

363. The bowels ought to be gently opened with small doses of castor oil. The patient must abstain from beer, wine, or spirits, and should live on a mild, bland, nourishing diet.

364. Where the patient cannot hold her water there is not a great deal to be done, as the pregnant womb by pressing on the bladder prevents much present relief. The comfort is, as soon as the labor is over, it will cure itself. She ought frequently in the day to lie down either on a horse-hair mattress or on a couch. She should drink but a moderate quantity of liquid, and if she has a cough (for a cough greatly increases this inability to hold the water), she ought to take the following mixture:

Take of—Compound Tincture of Camphor, half an ounce;

Compound Spirits of Lavender, half a drachm;

Oxymel of Squills, six drachms;

Water, six ounces and a half:

Two tablespoonfuls of this mixture to be taken three times a day.