Читать книгу The Mother and Her Child - Lena K. Sadler - Страница 107

While so much is being written about "twilight sleep" and "painless labor," it might be well to remind the American mother that much can be done to lessen the sufferings of the day of labor by one's method of living prior to the confinement.

We believe that child-bearing is a perfectly normal physical function for a healthy and normal woman—that it is even essential to her complete physical health, mental happiness, and moral well-being. Theoretically, child-bearing ought to be but little more painful than the functionating of numerous other vital organs—stomach, heart, bladder, bowels, etc.—and, indeed, it is not in the case of certain savage tribes and other aboriginal people, such as our own North American Indian.

But we must face the facts. The average American woman does suffer at childbirth; and she suffers more than we are disposed to allow her, or more than she, as a general rule, is willing to suffer. So, while we discuss appropriate methods of lessening the pain of labor and the pangs of childbirth by the scientific use of anesthetics, let us also call attention to certain things which may aid in decreasing the amount of pain which may reasonably be expected to attend child bearing.

To assist in bringing about this preparation for decreased pain at childbirth, mothers should teach their daughters how to develop, strengthen, and preserve their physical, mental, and moral resistance. The young mother should be taught by both her mother and her physician how to dress, how to work, and how to eat. Every care should be given to the hygiene of pregnancy and labor.

The expectant mother should have plenty of fruits and fruit juices, and if not physically well endowed to give birth to a large babe, she should have her diet restricted in meat, bread and milk, as well as the cereals. Overeating during pregnancy should be carefully guarded against, as emphasized in an earlier chapter. Deformities of the pelvis, etc., should rule out a consideration of pregnancy.

While artificial painless childbirth by means of "twilight sleep" and other similar methods all have their place; nevertheless, these procedures should not lead to the neglect of those natural methods and preventive practices which aid in preparing the normal expectant mother for nature's relatively painless labor. When so much anesthesia has to be used in a normal labor, it cannot but strongly suggest that both patient and physician have neglected those common but efficient methods which contribute indirectly to lessening the pangs of child bearing.