2, They should directly lose eight or nine Ounces of Blood from the Arm.
3, They should not eat Flesh, Flesh-broth, nor Eggs; but live solely on Soups made of farinaceous or mealy Substances.
4, They should take every two Hours half a Paper of the Powder [Nº. 20]; and should drink nothing but the Ptisan [Nº. 2].
Some sanguine robust Women are very liable to miscarry at a certain Time, or Stage, of their Pregnancy. This may be obviated by their bleeding some Days before that Time approaches, and by their observing the Regimen I have advised. But this Method would avail very little for delicate Citizens, who miscarry from a very different Cause; and whose Abortions are to be prevented by a very different Treatment.
Of Delivery, or Child-birth.
§ 366. It has been observed that a greater Proportion of Women die in the Country in, or very speedily after, their Delivery, and that from the Scarcity of good Assistance, and the great Plenty of what is bad; and that a greater Proportion of those in Cities die after their Labours are effected, by a Continuance of their former bad Health.
The Necessity there is for better instructed, better qualified Midwives, through a great Part of Swisserland, is but too manifest an Unhappiness, which is attended with the most fatal Consequences, and which merits the utmost Attention of the Government.
The Errors which are incurred, during actual Labour, are numberless, and too often indeed are also irremediable. It would require a whole Book, expressly for that Purpose (and in some Countries there are such) to give all the Directions that are necessary, to prevent so many Fatalities: and it would be as necessary to form a sufficient Number of well-qualified Midwives to comprehend, and to observe them; which exceeds the Plan of the Work I have proposed. I shall only mark out one of the Causes, and the most injurious one on this Occasion: This is the Custom of giving hot irritating Things, whenever the Labour is very painful, or is slow; such as Castor, or its Tincture, Saffron, Sage, Rue, Savin, Oil of Amber, Wine, Venice Treacle, Wine burnt with Spices, Coffee, Brandy, Aniseed-Water, Walnut-Water, Fennel-Water, and other Drams or strong Liquors. All these Things are so many Poisons in this Respect, which, very far from promoting the Woman's Delivery, render it more difficult by inflaming the Womb (which cannot then so well contract itself) and the Parts, through which the Birth is to pass, in Consequence of which they swell, become more straitened, and cannot yield or be dilated. Sometimes these stimulating hot Medicines also bring on Hæmorrhages, which prove mortal in a few Hours.
§ 367. A considerable Number, both of Mothers and Infants, might be preserved by the directly opposite Method. As soon as a Woman who was in very good Health, just before the Approach of her Labour, being robust and well made, finds her Travail come on, and that it is painful and difficult; far from encouraging those premature Efforts, which are always destructive; and from furthering them by the pernicious Medicines I have just enumerated, the Patient should be bled in the Arm, which will prevent the Swelling and Inflammation; asswage the Pains; relax the Parts, and dispose every thing to a favourable Issue.
During actual Labour no other Nourishment should be allowed, except a little Panada every three Hours, and as much Toast and Water, as the Woman chuses.