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Rest

Categories: Obstetrics or Midwifery

Complete rest of the body and mind is essential to the well being
of the lying-in woman. She is better off without any company, and should

see no one except her family for the first week or two. Outside visitors

should be prohibited. The lying-in room should be kept free from noise and

confusion, and the patient should be protected from annoyances of every

kind. She should remain lying on her back for a few days and immediately

> following delivery she should not have a pillow for her head. Sleep is

very necessary and desirable, and mild medicines should be given to

produce it, if necessary. It is best not to sit up in the bed until the

womb shall have had time to become smaller, and has resumed its natural

position behind the pubis. Among the upper classes, when it takes the womb

longer to regain its normal size, three weeks is a good rule to go by

before sitting up in the room, and she should remain in her room until the

end of the fourth week. Among healthy women of the laboring class, whose

muscular system has not been injured by "culture" and social excesses, the

womb and appendages regain their normal proportions more rapidly; but even

they should remain in bed two weeks.



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