The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother Part 27

HEALTH IN MARRIAGE.

_THE PERILS OF MATERNITY._

In the early part of this work we quoted some authorities to show that those women who choose single life as their portion do not escape the ills of existence, nor do they protract their days, but, on the contrary, as shown by extensive statistics, are more p.r.o.ne to affections of the mind, and die earlier. While, therefore, nature thus rewards those who fulfil the functions of their being, by taking part in the mysterious processes of reproduction, and perpetuating the drama of existence, it is true also that she a.s.sociates these privileges with certain deprivations and suffering. We do not wish to throw around the married state any charms which are not its own. Rather is it our aim to portray with absolute, and therefore instructive, fidelity all that this condition offers of unfavorable as well as favorable aspects.

Let us say at once, maternity has its perils,--perils as peculiar and as inevitable as those which pertain to single life. Our present purpose is to mention these, and by stating their nature and what are their causes, so far as known, to put married women on their guard against them. Some are almost trifling, at least not involving danger to life; others most hara.s.sing to the sufferer and to her friends.

We shall now consider the princ.i.p.al diseases to which married women are exposed from pregnancy, from childbirth, and from nursing.

DISEASES OF PREGNANCY.

In treating of pregnancy we have pointed out that it was a healthy and happy condition to most women. The exceptional cases are mainly those in which the health is injured by mental trouble or anxiety. Thus the young and delicate girl newly married is full of vague alarms in regard to the pains and dangers of her untried path to maternity. She frets herself and embitters her life during those months in which tranquility is of the utmost importance. Is it surprising, then, that her health should be disordered, and that she should suffer from some of the diseases incident to the pregnant state?

Again, the mother of a large family, but the mistress of a small income, is distressed by the thought of additional expense, which it seems to her, particularly in her nervous state, impossible to meet. This condition of protracted anxiety is ill fitted to enable her to resist any tendency to disease to which she may be exposed. Indeed, prolonged vexation from these and other causes not unfrequently tend to _puerperal mania_ (a disease of which we shall shortly have something to say), or to some other nervous affection.

The wife during pregnancy should therefore be treated with unusual kindness by those about her, and every attempt made to soften her lot.

The erroneous impression prevails among some that the pregnant wife should enure herself to toil and hardship. This notion is doubtless due to the observation that domestic animals that are subjected to a life of labor bring forth their young with little suffering. 'The cow in the country farm living unfettered in the meadow until the day of calving, has in general a safe and easy labor. The poor beast, on the contrary, which is kept in a town dairy, has a time so incredibly dangerous that the proprietor generally sells off his stock every year, and replaces it with cows in calf; such cows not being put into the stalls till within six or eight days of the expected period of labor. The deduction from this is that an artificial mode of life--a life maintained by improper food, and without a sufficient supply of pure air, or a due amount of exercise--has a most deleterious influence upon the process of labor; and not that a toilsome existence, embittered with all the pains and anxieties of poverty, gives comparative immunity from danger in the hour of childbirth.' One of the discomforts of pregnancy is--

MORNING SICKNESS.

This affection, when confined, as is usually the case, to the morning and early part of the day, rarely requires much medical care. Its absence, which, as we have said, is a frequent cause of miscarriage, is more to be regretted than its presence especially as it is apt to be replaced by more serious troubles.

Relief will be afforded by washing the face and hands in cold water, and taking a cup of milk or a little coffee and a biscuit or sandwich, _before raising the head from the pillow_ in the morning, remaining in bed about a quarter of an hour after this early meal; then dressing quickly, and immediately going out for a half-hour's walk. Rest in a half-rec.u.mbent posture during the day, particularly after meals, is beneficial. The affection is mostly a nervous one, and is best combated by eating. The food should be plain and unirritating, but nutritious, and should be taken frequently, in small quant.i.ties at a time.

When the nausea and vomiting are excessive, and continue during the day, there is generally some disordered condition of the digestive apparatus.

This may be corrected by taking at night a tea-spoonful of the confection of senna, a pleasant preparation of this ordinarily disagreeable medicine, and by drinking three times a day, before each meal, a wine-gla.s.sful of a tea made with columbo. Half an ounce of powdered columbo should be added, for this purpose, to a pint of boiling water.

Dr. John H. Griscom of New York recommends the bromide of pota.s.sium, which is a harmless medicine for domestic practice, as affording the most useful means of arresting the nausea attendant on pregnancy.

The following prescription may be compounded by any druggist, and will often be found very effective:

Take of Bromide of Pota.s.sium, two drachms, Cinnamon water, three fluid ounces.

Of this a dessert spoonful may be taken two or three times a day. It may be used with confidence as an entirely safe and harmless remedy in this troublesome affection.

A prescription frequently ordered for the nausea of pregnancy by the late distinguished Dr. Meigs, consisted of equal parts of sweet tincture of rhubarb and compound tincture of gentian--a dessert spoonful to be taken after meals.

_Pain in the abdomen_, caused by the distension of its walls, may be relieved by the application of equal parts of sweet oil and laudanum.

Another common and annoying, but rarely dangerous, trouble during pregnancy is--

VARICOSE VEINS.

The veins of the legs become distended, knotted, and painful. Women who have borne a number of children suffer most from this affection. It seldom attacks those pa.s.sing through their first pregnancies. It ordinarily first shows itself during the second pregnancy, and becomes rapidly worse during the third or fourth.

Although it is difficult to cure this disease during the continuance of the pregnancy, much can be done to prevent its occurrence, and to relieve it when present. Tight garters worn below the knee, and closely laced corsets, tend to cause and increase this swollen condition of the veins. Neither should be used during pregnancy.

Relief is best afforded to the suffering parts by means of a well-made and adjusted _elastic stocking_, which may be readily procured from a druggist or surgical instrument maker. In severe cases it may be necessary for the patient to keep herself as much as possible in the rec.u.mbent position on the bed or sofa. In all cases the feet should be supported when seated, so as to keep the blood from further distending the already swollen veins.

PILES.

That painful condition of the veins of the lower bowel known as haemorrhoids, or piles, is a not unfrequent annoyance to pregnant women.

Sometimes it is caused by prolonged constipation. During the period of pregnancy, therefore, constipation should be guarded against.

Ordinarily the piles are small, and of little consequence beyond the slight uneasiness they occasion. The trifling loss of blood from them is of no account, and often beneficial. The case is different, however, when the piles are large and painful, and give rise to much pain and copious bleeding. They then require prompt treatment.

In the _treatment_ of piles the first point to be aimed at is to keep the bowels moderately open. It must not be forgotten, however, that during pregnancy only the mildest of purgatives are ever to be given.

Castor oil, although a disagreeable, is a most excellent prescription in these cases. A small dose, repeated when necessary, will be found to act most kindly. If this remedy be too repugnant to the patient, small quant.i.ties of citrate of magnesia, or of cream of tartar, or of some of the natural mineral waters, may be employed. Small injections of lukewarm water are also of great service, and may be tried instead of laxatives.

After every movement the parts should be well sponged with cold water, and an ointment of galls and opium, procured from the druggist, applied.

If the parts become very much inflamed, warm poultices or hot chamomile solutions should be used, and the patient kept in bed until the inflammation subsides.

No attempt is to be made to effect the radical cure of piles during pregnancy. Any such attempt, besides being dangerous, is unnecessary, for the piles usually disappear of their own accord after the confinement. Every effort to make the sufferer more comfortable in the manner we have suggested is, however, right and safe.

DIARRHA.

Some women always suffer from looseness of the bowels during pregnancy; others are very liable to attacks of it during this period, either coming on without any a.s.signable cause or easily excited by any slight indiscretion in eating. In many instances these attacks alternate with constipation or with morning sickness.

The diarrha, if at all severe or prolonged, should not be allowed to go on unchecked, for it quickly weakens the patient and predisposes her to abortion. The ftus is especially endangered when the pa.s.sages are attended with much bearing-down pain. In some exceptional cases, however, a slight diarrha seems to be beneficial, for every attempt to remove it appears to do harm; but these instances are very rare.

The _treatment_ required is a simple, and must be a cautious one.

Ordinarily no medicine will be needed. If the patient will merely confine herself to milk and arrowroot and rice for twenty-four hours a cure will be effected in mild cases. When it is apparent that the attack has been caused by improper food, a table-spoonful of castor-oil or a tea-spoonful or two of tincture of rhubarb will remove the offending material in the bowels, upon the presence of which the diarrha depends.

A small injection of a tea-spoonful of rice water and thirty or forty drops of laudanum will often speedily arrest the excessive discharges, and relieve the pain.

CONSTIPATION.

No woman while pregnant should allow several days to elapse without a movement from the bowels. The symptoms of constipation, slight at the outset, soon cause great inconvenience. Among the effects, which, sooner or later, show themselves, may be feverishness, sleeplessness, headache, distressing dreams, sickness at the stomach, severe bearing-down pains, and piles.

Medicines are rarely required in the treatment of constipation, and the pregnant woman should never take an active purgative, excepting under medical advice. Outdoor exercise and regularity in soliciting nature's calls, together with a change in the diet, will usually have the desired effect. Brown bread, wheaten grits, oatmeal gruel, ripe fruits, fresh vegetables, stewed prunes, or prunes soaked in olive oil, baked apples, figs, tamarinds, honey, and currant jelly, are all laxative articles which should be tried.

In some instances a tumbler of cold water drunk the last thing at night, and another the first thing in the morning, will act in a most satisfactory manner. If the constipation should resist these safe and homely remedies, which will rarely be found the case, then medical a.s.sistance should be called in. On no account should the wife herself, or in accordance with the counsel of any non-medical friend, resort to purgative drugs.

COUGH.

A troublesome cough sometimes affects delicate, nervous women during the early months of pregnancy. If it be not very frequent nor severe, it requires no attention, as it will pa.s.s away of itself in a short time.

When, however, it disturbs the sleep at night, renders the patient anxious, and causes headache and weariness, it is time to do something for it. It may, indeed, be so violent as to threaten abortion on account of the forcible concussion of the abdomen it produces.

A tea-spoonful of paregoric occasionally repeated during the day will be found a most efficient soothing remedy.