https://ebookgate.com/product/organic-chemistry-

More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant download maybe you interests ...

Organic Chemistry Structure and Mechanisms 1st Edition
Harold H. Trimm
https://ebookgate.com/product/organic-chemistry-structure-andmechanisms-1st-edition-harold-h-trimm/

Solid Phase Organic Syntheses Solid Phase Palladium Chemistry Peter J. H. Scott
https://ebookgate.com/product/solid-phase-organic-synthesessolid-phase-palladium-chemistry-peter-j-h-scott/

Organic Chemistry 7th Edition Mcmurry
https://ebookgate.com/product/organic-chemistry-7th-editionmcmurry/

Introductory Chemistry Sixth Edition Steven S. Zumdahl
https://ebookgate.com/product/introductory-chemistry-sixthedition-steven-s-zumdahl/

Organic Chemistry 7th Edition John E. Mcmurry
https://ebookgate.com/product/organic-chemistry-7th-edition-johne-mcmurry/

Organic Chemistry 3rd Edition Janice G. Smith
https://ebookgate.com/product/organic-chemistry-3rd-editionjanice-g-smith/

Organic Chemistry 9th Edition John E. Mcmurry
https://ebookgate.com/product/organic-chemistry-9th-edition-johne-mcmurry/

World History Sixth Edition William J. Duiker
https://ebookgate.com/product/world-history-sixth-editionwilliam-j-duiker/

Silver in Organic Chemistry 1st Edition Michael Harmata
https://ebookgate.com/product/silver-in-organic-chemistry-1stedition-michael-harmata/
Another random document with no related content on Scribd:
the order of nature, as God designed she should do. But she gets her reward even here. There is no period of woman’s life in which she has so great enjoyment, such perfect physical health, as when she is nursing the offspring of her own blood. Her shattered nerves and broken health are poor pay for the so-called enjoyments of a dissipated life.
But it will be said, there are cases in which it is impossible for a mother to fulfill the office of nursing. She may be physically unable; that is, she may not have any milk to give it; her health may be so feeble, and her constitution so much depraved, that it would not be admissible to do so. All this I admit; but such cases are the exception and not the rule.
What are we to think of the mother who voluntarily permits her child to nurse at another breast? How are we to regard the morals of such a mother—one who willingly allows another person to gain the affections of her child—for it always becomes more attached to the one who nurses it than to its own parent? Besides, too, the character of the one who suckles the child is, to a great degree, stamped upon it, and that indelibly, too. Is a mother, then, willing that the child shall take on the character of another, and of one whose disposition and mental peculiarities she probably knows nothing? For one, I cannot envy the man who has a wife that can willingly resign her child to another to nurse.
Rules for Nursing.—After the birth of the child, the mother having rested herself some hours from the pains and anxiety she has passed through, it should be put to the breast with the view of exciting the mammiferous glands to their proper and healthful action. This is better for both mother and child. It may be necessary to make the attempt a number of times, and perhaps for days before the lacteal secretion will be found to take place. But letting the child every now and then make the effort to get milk will be one of the most efficient means of inducing it to flow.
How often to Nurse the Child.—This is a question of great importance; great not less to the parent than the offspring, but one which is by for too much neglected.
It may not be possible to ascertain exactly at what periods it is best to give a child the breast; but one thing may be predicated with the greatest confidence, which is, that there should be a regularity in
regard to it. To give the child the breast every half hour one day, and then, perhaps, the next, for the mother to go away for many hours, is certainly not a good practice.
I am led to believe, after having spent a good deal of thought on this subject, that to nurse a child once in about three hours, is perhaps as good a plan as can be fixed upon. Some have regarded four hours as a proper period; but one thing I am satisfied of, that the three hour rule is a good one; there is far more danger of nursing the child too often than there is from the opposite extreme.
It is common, I believe, for mothers to allow the child to take the breast during the night time. I am of the opinion that this practice, likewise, is not a good one. How much do you become fatigued, worn down, as it were, many of you, by allowing the child to take the nipple as often as it chooses in the night? In such cases, how much better you perceive it would be, to rest during the proper hours, so that when the morning comes, instead of being unrefreshed and stupid, you feel buoyant and elastic as a deer.
I am willing, however, to admit that it is probably the better rule for the child to be nursed somewhat late at night; for example, when you retire to rest; after that it should not be allowed nourishment till morning.
At what time to cease Nursing.—This, too, is a question which deserves a careful consideration—one on which the health of both parent and offspring very much depends.
It is probably true that women in the civilized and refined parts of the world do not, as a general fact, nurse their children for as long a period as is the case among the savage nations.
The Indian women of our own country, it would appear, are in the habit of continuing to suckle their children two years or more before weaning them. Nor do they at all allow of cohabitation during this period—a practice which might well be imitated by the more enlightened portions of the human race. “I shall not undertake to determine,” says Dr. Rush, “how far the wholesome quality of the mother’s milk is increased by her (the Indian woman’s) refusing the embraces of her husband during the time of giving suck.” If, then, the mother’s milk is to be deteriorated by the practice referred to, her health, also, must suffer in a corresponding ratio.
It would appear, also, that in Bible times the period of nourishing children at the breast was prolonged to a much greater period than is common in these latter times, for we read of the giving of suck three years.
Reappearance of the Menses.—Some have supposed that the period of nursing should be graduated according to the reappearance of the catamenial discharge, because, as they have supposed, the milk is deteriorated by that circumstance.
Let us inquire, in the first place, at what time after a woman has given birth to a child, does the menstrual function ordinarily commence?
Some authors tell us that this does not happen for nine or ten months, usually. Dr. Meigs tells us that he expects his patients “to become unwell at the seventh month of lactation.” “But more frequently than is generally believed,” says Dr. Tilt, “the periodical flow coincides with the secretion of milk as early as the second or third month of lactation, and this in perfectly healthy women; and I am in a great measure able to confirm the assertion of certain authors, that menstruation often continues regularly from the beginning of lactation.” These, however, are exceptional cases, the rule being that a number of months, ranging probably from seven or eight to fifteen, elapses before the menses reappear.
But it is by no means proved that lactation should be made to cease as soon as the woman has her monthly discharge. I have myself known numbers of cases in which nursing was continued for some months after, and apparently with good results to both mother and child. How is it in those cases where the menses do not cease at all, or, at farthest, come on at a much earlier period than it would be advisable to wean the child? Must we be obliged to wean the child in these cases? I think not.
Dr. Hassall, of London, we are informed, examined with a microscope the milk of a lady taken from her on the second day of menstruation, which had come on for the first time at the ninth month of lactation, and he reported that the milk was perfectly normal in quality.
Dr. Tilt informs us that, having carefully interrogated one hundred women in whom menstruation had returned at different periods of
lactation, he learned that the quantity and quality of the milk were varied as follows:
The same in
45
Diminished only at the menstrual time 8
Completely checked in 1
Impoverished only at the menstrual time 5
Impoverished then and thenceforth 2
Increased at the menstrual time 24
A rush of milk afterward 15 100
In making the above observations, the thriving of the children was the estimate of the quality of the milk. By “impoverishment,” was meant that the milk looked like whey, and sickened the children.
My belief, then, you will understand to be, that some other criterion than the reappearance of the menses is to be looked for in regard to the time you should continue to suckle a child. Your own health, the infant’s health, the season of the year, the stage of teething, and a variety of circumstances, are to be taken into the account. And I am fully persuaded that the mere fact of the menstrual discharge coming on, is not a sufficient reason why the child should be weaned. Moreover, weaning should be a gradual process, which it cannot be if a woman must cease to nurse it as soon as the menses come upon her.
Food and Drink proper during Lactation.—As a general principle, it may be stated that whatever is best for the constitution of the mother, is also best for that of the child.
Every thing that goes to injure the mother during the period of lactation operates powerfully upon the mammary secretion, deteriorating it in the same proportion that it acts as an unfriendly agent upon her. This secretion, too, be it remembered, is one of the very first of the fluids of the body to become affected under unfavorable circumstances. We know how quickly the milk of a distillery-fed cow becomes impoverished and unhealthy, when the
improper food is given to the cow; and precisely the same great physiological principles hold good in the woman as the animal.
Suppose you have a fine cow, to which you have become very much attached, and that has a fine calf; or even suppose you have a sow, to which you have devoted a more than ordinary share of attention, and that she has a fine brood of pigs. It is naturally to be supposed that you would take as much pains as possible with the cow, that she might give good milk for the calf; and if you have a fancy for raising pigs, you would be equally careful in regard to the sow. We will suppose you think there is danger that the animal will not produce milk enough for the required purpose. In such a case, would you give it tea, coffee, or porter to drink? Most assuredly you would not; nor would you consider any woman in her right mind who would. Now, it is just as improper and inconsistent for you to take these articles, any one of them, with the view of improving either the quantity or quality of the milk, as it would be to give them to animals for the same purpose. Farmers can tell you how much better it is for animals, when they are giving milk, to have pure water to drink; and the purer and softer it is, the better does the animal thrive in every respect.
I will not deny that a woman probably needs more fluid when she is nursing than she does at other times, and I presume that she feels a desire for more; if so, she can take it. But surely no one will tell me that there is any thing in the wide world that will at all compare with pure water as a means of quenching the thirst.
In nursing, as well as in all situations, you will find the diet to have a great influence in regulating the desire for drink. If you eat salt, and highly seasoned or sweetened articles, you will experience much more thirst than you would if the diet were more simple. A stimulating diet causes a degree of fever in the body; and water being the best and most natural of all substances for curing fever, nature sets up a demand for it. Remember, then, when you eat any thing that makes you dry, you are doing unwisely, because you are causing a degree of gastric fever, greater or less.
I need not, I think, go any more into details concerning what you should eat and drink while giving suck. The great thing is to do the best possible for your own health, and that also will be best for the child. You should not eat or take nourishing drink any oftener than
you would do at other times, nor should you overdo in quantity, because you think you have two to support.