_The dress of the mother._--Either a folded sheet should be adjusted around the waist as the only skirt, so as not to interfere with the walking, or a second chemise should be put on, with the arms outside the sleeves, to extend from the waist to the feet. Then the chemise next the body should be drawn up and folded high up around the breast. It should be plaited neatly along the back, and brought forward and fastened by pins. This should be thoroughly done, so that the linen may not be found wet nor soiled when it is drawn down after confinement. A wrapper or dressing-gown may be worn during the first stage of labor, before it is necessary to go to bed. When, however, that time comes, the wife will take her place on her left side on the temporary dressing, with a sheet thrown over her, her head on a pillow so situated that her body will be bent well forward, and her feet against the bed-post. A sheet should be twisted into a cord and fastened to the foot of the bed, for her to seize with her hands during the accession of the 'bearing-down pains.' Care should be taken to have a number of napkins, a pot of fresh lard, and the basket containing the scissors, ligature, bandage, etc.--which have been previously enumerated in the remarks on preparations for childbirth--at hand, for the use of the doctor.
We have now noted all that it is useful for the wife to know in regard to the preparation for and management of confinement, when a physician is in attendance, as, for obvious reasons, he should always be. In some instances, however, the absence of the doctor is unavoidable, or the labor is completed before his arrival. As a guide to the performance of the necessary duties of the lying-in room under such circumstances, we give some
The room during confinement should be kept quiet. Too many persons must not be allowed in it, as they contaminate the air, and are apt by their conversation to disturb the patient, either exciting or depressing her. So soon as the head is born, it should be immediately ascertained whether the neck is encircled by the cord; if so, it should be removed or loosened. The neglect of this precaution may result fatally to the infant, as happened a short time since in our own practice; the infant, born a few minutes before our arrival, being found strangled with the cord about its neck. It is also of importance at once to allow of the entrance of air to the face, to put the finger in the mouth to remove any obstruction which may interfere with respiration, and to lay the babe on its right side, with the head removed from the discharges. The cord should not be tied until the infant is heard to cry. The ligature is to be applied in the following manner:--A piece of bobbin is thrown around the navel-string, and tied with a double knot at the distance of three fingers' breadth from the umbilicus; a second piece is tied an inch beyond the first, and the cord divided with the scissors between the two, care being taken not to clip off a finger or otherwise injure the unsuspecting little infant, as has occurred in careless hands more than once. When the child is separated from the mother, a warm blanket or a piece of flannel should be ready to receive it. In taking hold of the little stranger, it may slip out of the hands and be injured. To guard against this accident, which is very apt to occur with awkward or inexperienced persons, always seize the back portion of the neck in the space bounded by the thumb and first finger of one hand, and grasp the thighs with the other. In this way it may be safely carried. It should be transferred, wrapped up in its blanket, to some _secure_ place, and never put in an arm-chair, where it may be crushed by some one who does not observe that the chair is already occupied. The head of the child should not be so covered as to incur any danger of suffocation.