Chapter VII

DIRECTIONS FOR CHILD-BEARING WOMEN IN THEIR LYING-IN.

SECT. I. _How a Woman newly Delivered ought to be ordered._

As soon as she is laid in her bed, let her be placed in it conveniently for ease and rest, which she stands in great need of, to recover herself of the great fatigue she underwent during her travail; and that she may lie the more easily let her hands and body be a little raised, that she may breathe more freely, and cleanse the better, especially of that blood which then comes away, that so it may not clot, which being restrained causeth great pain.

Having thus placed her in bed, let her take a draught of burnt white wine, having a drachm of spermaceti melted therein. The herb vervain is also singularly good for a woman in this condition, boiling it in what she either eats or drinks, fortifying the womb so exceedingly, that it will do more good in two days, than any other thing does in double that time, having no offensive taste. And this is no more than what she stands in need of; for her lower parts being greatly distended till the birth of the infant, it is good to endeavour the prevention of an inflammation there. Let there also be outwardly applied, all over the bottom of her abdomen and privities, the following anodyne and cataplasm: Take two ounces of oil of sweet almonds, and two or three new-laid eggs, yolks and whites, stirring them together in an earthen pipkin over hot embers, till they come to the consistence of a poultice; which being spread upon a cloth, must be applied to those parts, indifferently warm, having first taken away the closure (which was put to her presently after her delivery,) and likewise such clots of blood as were then left. Let this lie on five or six hours, and then renew it again as you see cause.

Great care ought to be taken at first, that if her body be very weak, she be not kept too hot, for extremity of heat weakens nature and dissolves the strength; and whether she be weak or strong, be sure that no cold air comes near her first; for cold is an enemy to the spermatic parts, and if it get into the womb, it increases the after-pains, causes swelling in the womb, and hurts the nerves. As to her diet, let it be hot, and let her eat but a little at a time. Let her avoid the light for the first three days, and longer if she be weak, for her labour weakens her eyes exceedingly, by a harmony between the womb and them. Let her also avoid great noise, sadness, and trouble of mind.

If the womb be foul, which may be easily perceived by the impurity of the blood (which will then easily come away in clots or stinking, of if you suspect any of the after-burden to be left behind, which may sometimes happen,) make her drink of featherfew, mugwort, pennyroyal, and mother of thyme, boiled in white wine and sweetened with sugar.

Panado and new-laid eggs are the best meat for her at first; of which she may eat often but not too much at a time. And let her nurse use cinnamon in all her meats and drinks, for it generally strengthens the womb.

Let her stir as little as may be, till after the fifth, sixth, or seventh day of her delivery, if she be weak; and let her take as little meat as possible, for that tends to weaken her very much.

If she goes not well to stool, give a clyster made only with the decoction of mallows and a little brown sugar.

When she hath lain-in a week or more, let her use such things as close the womb, of which knot-grass and comfrey are very good; and to them you may add a little polypodium, for it will do her good, both leaves and root being bruised.

SECT. II. _How to remedy those Accidents which a Lying-in Woman is
subject to._

I. The first common and usual accident that troubles women in their lying-in, is after-pains. They proceed from cold and wind contained in the bowels, with which they are easily filled after labour, because then they have more room to dilate than when the child was in the womb, by which they were compressed; and also because nourishment and matter, contained as well in them as in the stomach, have been so confusedly agitated from side to side during the pains of labour, by the throes which always must compress the belly, that they could not be well digested, whence the wind is afterwards generated, and by consequence the gripes which the woman feels running in her bowels from side to side, according as the wind moves more or less, and sometimes likewise from the womb, because of the compression and commotion which the bowels make. These being generally the case, let us now apply a suitable remedy.

1. Boil an egg soft, and pour out the yolk of it: with which mix a spoonful of cinnamon-water, and let her drink it; and if you mix in it two grains of ambergris, it will be better; and yet vervain taken in any thing she drinks, will be as effectual as the other.

2. Give the lying-in woman, immediately after delivery, oil of sweet almonds and syrup of maiden-hair mixed together. Some prefer oil of walnuts, provided it be made of nuts that are very good; but it tastes worse than the other at best. This will lenify the inside of the intestines by unctuousness, and by that means bring away that which is contained in them more easily.

3. Take and boil onions well in water, then stamp them with oil of cinnamon, spread them on a cloth, and apply them to the region of the womb.

4. Let her be careful to keep her body warm, and not to drink too cold; and if the pain prove violent, hot cloths, from time to time, must be laid on her abdomen, or a pancake fried in walnut oil may be applied to it, without swathing her body too strait. And for the better evacuating the wind out of the intestines, give her a clyster, which may be repeated as often as necessity requires.

5. Take bay-berries, beat them to powder, put the powder upon a chafing-dish of coals, and let her receive the smoke of them up her privities.

6. Take tar and bear’s grease, of each an equal quantity, boil them together, and whilst it is boiling, add a little pigeon’s dung to it. Spread some of this upon a linen cloth, and apply it to the reins of the back of her that is troubled with after-pains, and it will give her speedy ease.

Lastly, Let her take half a drachm of bay-berries beaten into a powder in a draught of muscadel or tent.

II. Another accident to which women in child-bed are subject is the hemorrhoids, or piles, occasioned through the great straining in bringing the child into the world. To cure this,

1. Let her be let blood in the saphæna vein.

2. Let her use polypodium in her meat and drink, bruised and boiled.

3. Take an onion, and having made a hole in the middle of it, fill it full of oil, roast it, and having bruised it all together, apply it to the fundament.

4. Take a dozen of snails, without shells if you can get them, or else so many shell snails, and pull them out, and having bruised them with a little oil, apply them warm as before.

5. If she go not well to stool, let her take an ounce of cassia fistula drawn at night going to bed; she needs no change of diet after.

III. Retention of the menses is another accident happening to women in child-bed; and which is of so dangerous a consequence, that, if not timely remedied, it proves mortal. When this happens,

1. Let the woman take such medicines as strongly provoke the terms, such as dittany, betony, pennyroyal, featherfew, centuary, juniper-berries, peony roots.

2. Let her take two or three spoonfuls of briony water each morning.

3. Gentian roots beaten into a powder, and a drachm of it taken every morning in wine, are an extraordinary remedy.

4. The root of birthwort, either long or round, so used and taken as the former, are very good.

5. Take twelve peony seeds, and beat them into a very fine powder, and let her drink them in a draught of hot cardus posset, and let her sweat after. And if this last medicine do not bring them down the first time she takes it, let her take as much more three hours after, and it seldom fails.

IV. Overflowing of the menses is another accident incidental to child-bearing women. For which,

1. Take shepherd’s purse, either boiled in any convenient liquor, or dried and beaten into a powder, and it will be an admirable remedy to stop them, this being especially appropriated to the privities.

2. The flower and leaves of brambles, or either of them, being dried and beaten into a powder, and a drachm of them taken every morning in a spoonful of red wine, or in a decoction of leaves of the same (which perhaps is much better,) is an admirable remedy for the immoderate flowing of the terms in women.

V. Excoriations, bruises, and rents of the lower part of the womb are often occasioned by that violent distention and separation of the four carbuncles in a woman’s labour. For the healing whereof, as soon as the woman is laid, if there be only simple contusions and excoriations, then let the anodyne cataplasms, formerly directed, be applied to the lower parts to ease the pain, made of the yolks and whites of new-laid egg and oil of roses, boiled a little over warm embers, continually stirring it till it is mixed, and then spread on a fine cloth; it must be applied very warm to the bearing-place for five or six hours, and when it is taken away, lay some fine rags, dipped in oil of St. John’s wort twice or thrice a day; also foment the parts with barley-water and honey of roses, to cleanse them from the excrements which pass.

VI. The curding and clotting of the milk is another accident which happens to women in child-bed; for, in the beginning of child-bed, the woman’s milk is not purified, because of the great commotions her body suffered during her labour, which affected all the parts, and it is then moved with many humours. Now this clotting of the milk does, for the most part, proceed from the breasts not being fully drawn, and that either because she has too much milk, and that the infant is too small and weak to suck all, or because she does not desire to be a nurse; for the milk, in those cases remaining in the breast after concoction, without being drawn, loseth the sweetness and the balsamic quality it had, and by reason of the heat it acquires, and the too long stay it makes there, it sours, curds, and clots, in like manner as we see runnet put into ordinary milk turn it into curds. The curding of the milk may be also caused by having taken a great cold, and not keeping the breast well covered.

But from what cause soever this curding of the milk proceeds, the most certain remedy is, speedily to draw the breasts until it is emitted and dried. But in regard that the infant, by reason of weakness, cannot draw strong enough, the woman being hard marked when her milk is curded, it will be most proper to get another woman to draw her breasts until the milk comes freely, and then she may give her child suck. And that she may not afterwards be troubled with a surplus of milk, she must eat such diet as gives but little nourishment, and keep her body open.

But if the case be such, that the woman neither can nor will be a nurse, it is necessary to apply other remedies for the curing of this distemper: for then it will be best not to draw the breasts: for that will be the way to bring more milk into them. For which purpose, it will be necessary to empty the body, by bleeding the arm: besides which, let the humours be drawn by strong clysters and bleeding in the feet: nor will it be amiss to purge gently; and to digest, dissolve, and dissipate the curded milk, apply a cataplasm of pure honey, or that of the four brains dissolved in a decoction of sage, milk, smallage, and fennel, mixing with it oil of camomile, with which oil let the breasts be well anointed. The following liniment is also good to scatter and dissipate the milk.

_A Liniment to Scatter and Dissipate the Milk._

That the milk flowing back to the breast may without offence be dissipated, you must use this ointment; “Take pure wax two ounces, linseed half a pound; when the wax is melted, let the liniment be made, wherein linen cloths must be dipped, and, according to their largeness, be laid upon the breast; and when it shall be dispersed, and pains no more, let other linen cloths be dipped in the distilled water of acorns, and put them upon them.”

_Note._ That the cloths dipped into distilled water of acorns must be used only by those who cannot nurse their own children: but if a swelling in the breast of her who gives suck do arise from abundance of milk, and threatens an inflammation, let her use the former ointment, but abstain from using the distilled water of acorns.