Management of the New-born Infant. — As soon as the child is born, it should be turned with its face upward, so that it shall be insured breathing room. Care must be taken to pass the navel-string over the child's head, if it be twisted round its neck, otherwise it may be strangled thereby. It should then be separated from its mother by first tying and then dividing the navel-string. The first step, the tying, may be done by any strong ligature. Usually half a dozen brown threads are used to tie the cord with, but a piece of twine or tape will do just as well. The cord or navel-string must be tied firmly in two places-^first, about two inches from the child, and then two inches further, and then by a sharp pair of scissors divided between the ligatures. In the preceding remarks it has been assumed that medical attendance is not to be had. If it be expected in a reasonable time, and the child is born before the arrival of the medical man, all that will be required will be to secure its being able to breathe freely. An infant may be left alone for an hour or two under these circumstances without its incurring harm. When the child has been expelled and separated, firm pres- sure should be made on the lower part of the abdomen, the hand grasping the large tumor of the emptied womb. Steady pressure being made firmly in a direction downward and back- ward, the tumor will be felt to decrease in size, and at the same time the after-birth will be expelled. When this has ^aken place the labor is finished, and the best thin^ for thf MEDICINAL. 2S^ woman is then to let her alone to rest for a couple of hours. She should on no account be suffered to rise up quickly in bed, as by reason of the recent diminution of the contents of the abdomen, she is peculiarly liable to faint on sitting up. If the labor has been long and exhaustive, a moderate stimulant^ such as a glass of wine, or of brandy and water, should be given. At the end of two hours after the labor, the patient's clothes, etc., should be changed, and a broad binder or band- age pinned round the abdomen, not tightly, but only so as to give the feeling of a comfortable degree of support. Treatment of the Lying-in Woman. — It has been too much the custom to regard a woman after childbirth as an in- valid, or to speak of her as a patient, whereas she is the very reverse. She is in the most natural and healthy of all condi- tions for a woman, but one requiring more than common care to prevent her falling into diseases, to which she is prone from the great strain that has been put upon her constitution for months past, capped with the climax of hours of pain and strong muscular effort. Under the influence of erroneous views, lying-in women have been kept for days together upon gruel, tea, etc. This treatment has, however, of late years given way to a plan more consistent with common sense, and better calculated to restore the nervous energies after the fatigues of perhaps many weary hours of labor, superadded to months of gestation.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Management of the New-born Infant. — As soon as the child is born, it should be turned with its face upward, so that it shall be insured breathing room. Care must be taken to pass the navel-string over the child's head, if it be twisted round its neck, otherwise it may be strangled thereby. It should then be separated from its mother by first tying and then dividing the navel-string. The first step, the tying, may be done by any strong ligature. Usually half a dozen brown threads are used to tie the cord with, but a piece of twine or tape will do just as well. The cord or navel-string must be tied firmly in two places—first, about two inches from the child, and then two inches further, and then by a sharp pair of scissors divided between the ligatures. In the preceding remarks it has been assumed that medical attendance is not to be had. If it be expected in a reasonable time, and the child is born before the arrival of the medical man, all that will be required will be to secure its being able to breathe freely. An infant may be left alone for an hour or two under these circumstances without its incurring harm. When the child has been expelled and separated, firm pressure should be made on the lower part of the abdomen, the hand grasping the large tumor of the emptied womb. Steady pressure being made firmly in a direction downward and backward, the tumor will be felt to decrease in size, and at the same time the after-birth will be expelled. When this has taken place the labor is finished, and the best thing for the MEDICINAL. 2S^ woman is then to let her alone to rest for a couple of hours. She should on no account be suffered to rise up quickly in bed, as by reason of the recent diminution of the contents of the abdomen, she is peculiarly liable to faint on sitting up. If the labor has been long and exhaustive, a moderate stimulant, such as a glass of wine, or of brandy and water, should be given. At the end of two hours after the labor, the patient's clothes, etc., should be changed, and a broad binder or bandage pinned round the abdomen, not tightly, but only so as to give the feeling of a comfortable degree of support. Treatment of the Lying-in Woman. — It has been too much the custom to regard a woman after childbirth as an invalid, or to speak of her as a patient, whereas she is the very reverse. She is in the most natural and healthy of all conditions for a woman, but one requiring more than common care to prevent her falling into diseases, to which she is prone from the great strain that has been put upon her constitution for months past, capped with the climax of hours of pain and strong muscular effort. Under the influence of erroneous views, lying-in women have been kept for days together upon gruel, tea, etc. This treatment has, however, of late years given way to a plan more consistent with common sense, and better calculated to restore the nervous energies after the fatigues of perhaps many weary hours of labor, superadded to months of gestation.

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