Though pregnancy is not a disease, yet that state is often attended with a variety of complaints which merit attention, and which sometimes require the assistance of medicine. Some women indeed are more healthy during their pregnancy than at any other time; but this is by no means the general case: most of them breed in sorrow, and are frequently indisposed during the whole time of pregnancy. Few fatal diseases, however, happen during that period; and hardly any, except abortion, that can be called dangerous. We shall therefore pay particular attention to it, as it proves generally fatal to the child, and sometimes so to the mother.
Pregnant women are often afflicted with the heart-burn. The method of treating this complaint has been already pointed out. They are likewise, in the more early periods of pregnancy, often harassed with sickness and vomiting, especially in the morning. The method of relieving these complaints has also been shewn. Both the head-ach and tooth-ach are very troublesome symptoms of pregnancy. The former may generally be removed by keeping the body gently open, by the use of prunes, figs, roasted apples, and such like. When the pain is very violent, bleeding may be necessary. For the treatment of the latter, we must refer to that article. Several other complaints incident to pregnant women might be mentioned, as a cough and difficulty of breathing, suppression and incontinency of urine, &c.; but as all of these have been taken notice of before, it is needless to repeat them.
Every pregnant woman is more or less in danger of abortion. This should be guarded against with the greatest care, as it not only weakens the constitution, but renders the woman liable to the same misfortune afterwards[[180]]. Abortion may happen at any period of pregnancy, but it is most common in the second or third month. Sometimes, however, it happens in the fourth or fifth. If it happens within the first month, it is usually called a false conception; if after the seventh month, the child may often be kept alive by proper care.
The common causes of abortion are, the death of the child; weakness or relaxation of the mother; great evacuations; violent exercise; raising great weights; reaching too high; jumping, or stepping from an eminence; vomiting; coughing; convulsion fits; blows on the belly; falls; fevers; disagreeable smells; excess of blood; indolence; high living; or the contrary; violent passions or affections of the mind, as fear, grief, &c.
The signs of approaching abortion are, pain in the loins, or about the bottom of the belly; a dull heavy pain in the inside of the thighs; a slight degree of coldness, or shivering; sickness, palpitation of the heart; the breasts become flat and soft; the belly falls; and there is a discharge of blood or watery humours from the womb.
To prevent abortion, we would advise women of a weak or relaxed habit to use solid food, avoiding great quantities of tea, and other weak and watery liquors; to rise early and go soon to bed; to shun damp houses; to take frequent exercise in the open air, but to avoid fatigue; and never to go abroad in damp foggy weather, if they can shun it.
Women of a full habit ought to use a spare diet, avoiding strong liquors, and every thing that may tend to heat the body, or increase the quantity of blood. Their diet should be of an opening nature, consisting principally of vegetable substances. Every woman with child ought to be kept cheerful and easy in her mind. Her appetites, even though depraved, ought to be indulged as far as prudence will permit.
When any signs of abortion appear, the woman ought to be laid in bed on a mattrass, with her head low. She should be kept quiet, and her mind soothed and comforted. She ought not to be kept too hot, nor to take any thing of a heating nature. Her food should consist of broths, rice and milk, jellies, gruels made of oatmeal, and the like, all of which ought to be taken cold.
If she be able to bear it, she should lose at least half a pound of blood from the arm. Her drink ought to be barley-water sharpened with juice of lemon; or she may take half a drachm of powdered nitre, in a cup of water-gruel, every five or six hours. If the woman be seized with a violent looseness, she ought to drink the decoction of calcined hartshorn prepared. If she be affected with vomiting, let her take frequently two table-spoonfuls of the saline mixture. In general, opiates are of service; but they should always be given with caution.
Sanguine robust women, who are liable to miscarry at a certain time of pregnancy, ought always to be bled a few days before that period arrives. By this means, and observing the regimen above prescribed, they might often escape that misfortune.