The Province of Midwives in the Practice of their Art / Instructing them in the timely knowledge of such difficulties as require the assistance of Men, for the preservation of Mother and Child; very necessary for the perusal of all the sex interested in the subject, and interspersed with some New and Useful Observations.

by William Clark

FTER Delivery, tis too universal a Practice to palliate the After-pains by Opiates, which if given beyond the Proportion, necessary to take off the Spasms attending, are mischievous, tending to obstruct the natural Cleansings, so absolutely necessary to succeed; and as these Pains cease of Course for the most Part in two or three Days, it were much better to have recourse to Sperma Ceti dissolv’d with the Yolk of an Egg in a Draught of Caudle, or a Linctus of Sallad Oil and Sugar, if Oil of Sweet Almonds cannot be had fresh, as often as the Pains are violent.

Particular Occasions may indeed require other Methods, but then ’tis best to be well advis’d, whether Opiates, or other Medicines are necessary. During their Purgations, the Woman, in Child-bed, ought to be kept warm, from all Danger of taking cold, to a Degree of sensible Perspiration, and if she has no Stool by the third Day, which commonly brings, with the Milk, a feverish Heat, a Kitchen Glyster ought to be given and repeated in costive Habits, as there is Occasion.

I SHALL conclude with some Things of the Care of Infants newly born; a Subject the more interesting, as our Natives are known greatly to decrease from the free Use of Spirituous Liquors; which Loss might in some Degree be repaired by a better Care of their Offspring, who are not only expos’d to suffer by the Ignorance of Midwives, but must undergo a second Martyrdom from swadling and cramming.

Their fond Nurses greatly contribute to the general Cause of all their Distempers, Indigestion, frequently feeding them ’till they return it by the Mouth, which under these Circumstances, unless supply’d by a Looseness, is the only Means of their Preservation from more immediate Death.

This Overcharge of their Stomachs, producing Crudities, gives them the most excruciating Pains in their Bowels; occasioning very often Fevers and Convulsions, and yet their Cries are customarily appeas’d by more Food, furnishing an Encrease of sharp Crudities in their Bowels; and ’tis well if Syrup of Poppies, Godfrey’s Cordial, or some other Opiate, be not given to stifle their Complaints, but in Effect to encrease the Mischief, by confining the Acrimony of an Overload within them.

Infants are born with their Stomachs and Intestines charged with the Recrements of the Humours in which they swim, before Birth, and the glandular Secretions within them, which will naturally purge away with the first Milk they draw from the Mother’s Breast; and they would sleep, were they not too soon fed, ’till this Provision of Nature is ready for them, as Dr. CADOGAN found from Experience in his own Family; but as the Humour of Feeding them sooner generally obtains, and the Mother too often is not the Nurse; Half a Drachm of Castile Soap diffolv’d in a Spoonful or two of thin Caudle, and sweetened with Honey, would cleanse the Child, and prevent many Distempers, owing to a Retention of Impurities within them before the Birth, if given soon after.

’Tis well worth remarking, that the Food the Nurse takes communicates its Nature to the Milk, so that the Child may be intoxicated by her giving Suck too soon after strong Drink or Spirituous Liquors, by which Means many are destroy’d; it is likewise well known, if the Nurse takes a Purge, her Milk will purge the Child.

This informs us, that when the Child is troubled with Gripes, attended with green, sour-smelling Stools, the Mother, or Nurse, by being confin’d to an Animal Diet, will, in a great Degree, prevent the Gripes, Looseness, or Convulsions, occasion’d by the Acidities of the Child’s Stomach and Bowels, from the contrary Qualities communicated to her Milk. On the Contrary, a vegetable Diet will greatly relieve the same Complaints, attended with strong smelling Stools, and a Tendency to the Putrefaction of the Humours, and the Child’s Spoon-meat, when any Thing is given besides the Mother’s Milk, may be regulated accordingly: In the mean Time, in both Cases, these Indigestions ought to be purged off with a few Grains of Rhubarb, or double the Quantity infus’d at Night in a Spoonful of common Drink, strain’d and sweetened with Honey.

This, with a suitable and commodious Dress, leaving them Freedom for all their Motions, taking Care not to fill them with Crudities, by over-charging their Stomachs, would preserve the Health of young Children, they would then sleep away most of their Time, without those continual Cries of Misery, calling on the Compassion of all about them, whereby abundance of Trouble to their Nurses, and the continual Occasion of Medicines, to sweeten and purge away the Effects of Indigestion, would be prevented.

FINIS.