The healthy marriage : a medical and psychological guide for wives.

  • Wrench, Guy Theodore, 1877-
Date:
1916
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The healthy marriage : a medical and psychological guide for wives. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    be moved and thrown back together, and not severally, when there is need: In the first stage of labour the nurse also pays heed to the patient’s bowels and bladder. She sees that she passes her water frequently and she sees that the back passage is emptied. This is most important, for, matter coming from the back passage during the birth of the child, which squeezes the stuff out in its descent, makes it difficult to keep the childbirth clean and adds to the risk of infection with consequent chance of fever in the lying-in period. Moreover, a full bladder and back passage undoubtedly delay labour and in some way make the pains tedious. Therefore, the nurse is almost sure to give her patient a soap-and-water enema, which will relieve her, hasten the birth of the child and eliminate as far as possible a common source of uncleanliness. When the bowels are opened, she uses the chamber or commode, if she has it. She should not go to the closet, because, as has been said, there are rare cases in which the child has been born and actually drowned whilst the mother was. at the closet. It is a rare accident, but it is well, of course, to avoid all risk. Not infrequently the pains in the first stage of labour make a wife sick. If she vomits much she will have to go to bed or certainly lie down for a while ; for this she can also try sips of iced soda water. Brandy she should not take without the doctor’s order. Again, sometimes the pains decrease in intensity, decrease in frequency, and eventually die away altogether. The wife in these cases finds herself inclined to sleep and so she goes to sleep and