But it will be of importance to you to obtain as much medical knowledge as is herein contained, though it is not designed to make you physicians. Do not act the part of a doctor until you understand every thing pertaining to Anatomy and Physiology, and the nature and properties of every medicine employed in the cure of disease. Of all sciences the medical should embrace the widest domain of knowledge, because ignorance here is fatal. But ignorance and thoughtlessness, and want of skill and adaptation, may be fatal in your particular province. The physician will generally tell you that the recovery of his patient depends as much upon faithfulness and skill and care on your part as upon his own medicines. Seek always to aid him, never to supercede him. If you learn midwifery, it should be with the design of co-operating with the doctor, and assisting him. You should be so educated that the physician will feel willing to leave a case of tedious labor in your care, instead of waiting at the bedside of the patient one or two days, and neglecting his other patients. Your educated service will be appreciated at such times by the doctor, as well as by the patient and her friends. You will do the duties of nursing well, and take upon yourself that part of the practice of a physician which he does not desire, and which you can do equally well. Your part will be an important one, and second only to that of the physician.
I expect, as the result of the study of this book, not that you will assume to be physicians to any greater extent than you otherwise would, but that you will act wisely and intelligently instead of confusedly, or blindly, in the emergencies in which you will be called upon to act,—that you will be, not merely attendants at the bedside of the sick, but, that best aid to the physician, the true nurse.
Do not claim to be doctor or midwife, or anything whatever that you are not. If a smattering of knowledge causes any affectation, it will only degrade you. Study physiology in the books commonly used; store your minds with the facts and instructions in this book; obtain additional knowledge in every way that is practicable. As you have opportunity, make practical application of the knowledge received, and you will commend yourself more and more to your sick or suffering friends.
PART I.
PREGNANCY AND CONFINEMENT.
CHAPTER I.
CONDUCT OF THE MOTHER BEFORE AND AFTER MARRIAGE.
The physical treatment of children should begin, as far as may be practicable, with the earliest formation of the embryo. It will involve the conduct of the female even before her marriage, as well as during her pregnancy—the various contingencies which effect her in health as well as in disease. Very much depends on her to insure for her child a vigorous constitution, or to prevent a feeble frame in the child. She should not enter into the holy state of marriage with heedless haste; if she does, she will discharge its duties with inexcusable neglect. To constitute a mother, in the best sense of the term, requires a patient endurance of fatigue, and anxious solicitude, which will sorely tax the mother’s strength. I would, if possible, diminish the toil and danger of childbirth, and relieve the fatigue and anxiety of nursing.
And let me, in one paragraph, give a hint to the husband: that the responsibility and care of the children is too much laid on the mother; she is overburdened. Let the father partake in the arduous and responsible duty of their education. And let me hint, also, that the health and strength of the child depends upon the father as well as the mother.
Marriage should not be at too Early a Period of Life.—I am not disposed to discourage early marriage, but I am decidedly opposed to a premature one. Marriage should not take place until the body is healthily and completely developed; to bear offspring prematurely endangers not only the mother’s health, but it materially influences the health and well-being of the child.
We cannot fix rigorously the age at which the body becomes fully expanded. I am inclined to say it is at 20 in the female, and at 24 in the male; but original stamina, education, climate, mode of life, etc., have their influence, and may make an earlier or a later marriage proper.
The evil consequences resulting from precocious unions in this country are: diminished vigor and shortened life in the husband; faded beauty, blasted health, and premature old age in the mother, and a diminutive stature, debility of body and imbecility of mind, perhaps a strong predisposition to consumption, rickets, scrofula, etc., in the children.