Tokology

Frequent bathing in pregnancy is of the greatest importance. When the “water cure” fever first ran like wild-fire through the country, many were alarmed lest the child-bearing woman should do herself great harm. Although the cold water washing was carried to great excess, few cases came to light where any one was injured by it, while hundreds bear testimony that they were greatly benefited. Relief was obtained for the suffering both during pregnancy and at confinement. One step at least was taken in advance which never can be retraced. Previous to that time women were actually afraid of water. It might be well for others, but tradition and prejudice taught that if a pregnant woman bathed in cold water, she ran great risk, and if her hands even were put in cold water after confinement she would surely die.

The “water cure” people took the other extreme. The woman doused and swam the whole nine months, and fifteen minutes after her child was born, she would be lifted into a full or sitz-bath of cold water. The doctor and the good grandmother could not account for the fact that she survived, save by attributing it to some special providence. Forty years only have worked wondrous changes, and now all intelligent women know the luxury of the bath in this condition, and many recognize its therapeutic value.

The processes of nutrition and waste are more active in the pregnant woman than in any other. Her condition is more like that of a child, consequently she can bathe more frequently with advantage.

The sponge or towel bath, taken in the morning two or three times a week, is stimulating and invigorating. No more than two minutes is required for this bath. It should be taken immediately upon rising, while the temperature of the body is warm enough to insure thorough reaction. The colder one can use the water, the more sure the reaction. The first few mornings bathe the upper part of the body only. In a short time one can venture upon the whole surface. It should be followed by friction with a Turkish towel or coarse mitten, and if the person is not strong, with rubbing by an assistant. Then for five minutes take deep inspirations of fresh air, and the people are few who do not feel good after this ablution. It is par excellence the “ounce of preventive.” It is a “coat of mail” against colds, catarrhs and influenzas. To the pregnant woman it is life and vitality, and atones for a multitude of physical sins.

A man once wrote that, “by wearing magnetic appliances, ozone was developed in the blood.” Whether he knew what ozone was, or what condition the blood was in when ozone was in it, is not proven. If, however, it is possible to get a condition in which you feel that there is “ozone in the blood,” it is after one of these quick, cold, tonic, invigorating baths. My experience in prescribing it has proven that it is not debilitating, even when taken twice daily. Too many warm baths may, in time, reduce the physical standard. But simply wetting the surface, with hand, sponge or towel in cold water, or, what some prefer, dashing cold water quickly over the body, is a decided tonic. A little courage and perseverance is required to form the habit—once formed, few relinquish it. If no reaction follows, and the person remains cold, it should not be persevered in.

The sitz-bath is one of the most desirable baths for the pregnant woman. A tin tub made especially for this bath (procured of dealers in tinware), requiring but little water, ought to be in every household. If unable to procure one, a small-sized wash-tub can be used, raising one side on a block of wood. Tepid water is the most beneficial, unless for the relief of pain or acute inflammation, when hot water should be used. Commence taking it with the temperature at 90° Fahrenheit, and gradually reduce it, until, during the last months, it is as low as 60°. Remain in it from three to eight minutes, then have towel and hand friction, followed by rest in the reclining position, and sleep if possible. If it causes a rush of blood to the head, remain in for a less time, and put a wet napkin around the neck.

From ten to twelve o’clock in the morning is the best time to take this bath. If one has not time to rest at this hour, it can be taken just before retiring. Without the rest, half the value is lost. This bath is a tonic, sedative, alterative, laxative, diuretic, anti-spasmodic, anti-periodic, anti-phlogistic, etc.; indeed it will do almost anything desired to be done for the pregnant woman. It restores nervous equilibrium, it removes obstructions from the surface, is invaluable for portal congestion, and for inflammation of any of the abdominal or pelvic viscera. Nothing is better for insomnia, facial neuralgia, nausea, biliousness, constipation, hemorrhoids, cramps, varicose veins, weariness, headache, nervousness, etc., etc.

A woman has omitted the most effectual remedial agent for pathological symptoms, if she has not tried this bath; and not once only, but has taken it every day, or twice a day for at least a month. She may have taken any amount of remedies, may have used outside appliances, but if she has not had this tepid sitz-bath, she has omitted the very best and surest means of relief. It cannot do harm, and it can do great good.

For severe pain from colic, neuralgia or acute inflammation, the bath should be taken warm, and in some instances, quite hot; this should be continued fifteen or twenty minutes, protecting the patient carefully with blankets, after which she should, without removing them, lie on the bed and rest.

Hot fomentations are usually administered by applying to the affected part a flannel cloth wrung out of simple or medicated hot water. Some physicians prescribe bags of hops, tanzy, smart-weed, etc., or Indian meal or flaxseed poultice, to be kept hot in a steamer. All these appliances are remonstrated against by patients and nurses. They are disagreeable and untidy. The bed gets wet and soiled, the patient likewise. Moist heat is wanted, but one is more likely to get moist cold, which has a dampening effect upon both body and mind. The nurse scalds her hands, ruins clothing, and execrates the doctor who prescribed them.

The very best method of making hot applications is by means of the rubber “hot water bottle.” These hold from one to four quarts, and can be readily procured. Boiling water can be used in them, and the heat will be retained many hours. They are soft, pliable and agreeable to the touch, and adjust themselves to every part of the body. When moisture is desired, place a wet cloth under them. No well regulated family should be without a hot water bottle.

When, however, this is lacking, there are several convenient modes of making hot applications. Put part of a sheet or blanket around the patient, to protect the bed and clothing. Then lay a newspaper upon a cook stove, or flat top of a heating stove. Wring a large flannel cloth dry as possible out of cold or tepid water. Lay it between the folds of the paper, and it will soon steam hotter than can be handled. Take it to the patient and place it underneath the sheet, in contact with the body. Have another cloth heating, to take the place of this one when it ceases to be hot. The moist cloth can also be kept hot by putting it on a tin plate which is in the oven or on top of a stove. The virtue of a fomentation is in the heat, and it must be kept hot.

Another still more simple method, desirable where the patient must wait upon herself, is to place over the part affected a cloth wrung from warm water; then lay over it a hot stove lid, wrapped securely in paper. This will retain heat for a long time, and gives the patient opportunity for rest.

The hot fomentation is a valuable remedial agent. It is rare to find acute suffering, where it is not indicated. It alleviates neuralgia and rheumatic pain. It is good for biliousness, constipation and torpid liver. It relieves colic and flatulence, and is of special value in menstrual pain or suppression. Thoroughly applied, acute diseases may be arrested without other aids.

The precautions that must be taken in using hot fomentations, especially if moist, is to have them hot and keep them hot while they are continued. When removed, replace them with dry flannel or bathe the part in tepid water, rub dry and put on the ordinary clothing. The latter is desirable when used in chronic affections. In acute attacks, especially of inflammation, it is well to follow or alternate with a compress from cold water. Don’t use paregoric, Dover’s powders, morphine, or even a homeopathic preparation until you have tried thoroughly the hot fomentation. Remember that when you get relief from an application like this you will not suffer from the poisonous effects of drugs. You rally more quickly, and are not as liable to another attack, for nature has had a better opportunity to throw off diseased conditions.

The cold compress is a convenient, safe, desirable and effectual domestic remedy. Like the fomentation, it requires knowledge and skill in its application. Take a worn linen towel, wring dry from cold water, apply to the affected part, then cover well with several thicknesses of flannel, securely excluding the air. Reaction soon follows, warmth ensues, and the same or better result is obtained than from a poultice. It can remain on one or two hours or else all night. Should always be followed with thorough bathing in cold water and friction.

This compress must not be wet in warm water. In that case it grows cold and keeps cold. If wet in cold water, the colder the better, it sends the blood from the surface, and the reaction causes it to get warm and keep warm. To make it subserve its purpose these three rules must be observed.

1. Wring from cold water.

2. Wring dry.

3. Cover thoroughly with flannel.

The compress should never be continued where warmth and reaction can not be obtained. In persons with a cold surface and a sluggish circulation it is well to precede it for half an hour with a hot fomentation.

The compress is beneficial both for acute and chronic inflammations. In sore throats, croup, bronchitis and inflammation of the lungs it is invaluable. Many persons use no other means for croup, wringing the cloth from ice-cold water. In inflammation of the abdominal and pelvic viscera it is equally good. In pregnancy, if there is irritation in the stomach, congestion of the liver, constipation or distress of the bowels, accompanied by heat, the compress in these regions will be beneficial.

The heat and dull aching pain in the back, that is so often complained of, is the result of some irritation in the uterus. The compress worn at night or when taking the daily rest, will give great relief. It can simply be put across the back, or may extend entirely around the abdomen. The frequency and length of time continued must depend upon the case.

The foot and leg baths are good derivative appliances. Taken warm they will relieve nervousness, sleeplessness and irritability.

For habitual cold feet there is no better remedy than bathing the feet in cold water at bed-time. Have everything ready for retiring. In the foot-tub put three-fourths of an inch of cold water. Hold the feet in that half a minute. Then dry with coarse towel and spat them well with the hand. The reaction gives warm feet for the night, and if persisted in for three or four weeks, habitual cold feet are often cured.

The turkish or thermal bath affords one of the best, surest and safest sanative and therapeutic agents known to medical science. In a well-appointed establishment for this bath, the subject enters a room heated from 130° to 160° Fahrenheit; remains there until copious perspiration is induced. He is then taken to a room, temperature about 90° deg., where he is laid upon a slab or table and thoroughly shampooed with soap and water. This is followed by a spray, douche, shower or plunge bath; then he is dried and thoroughly manipulated by an attendant, after which he lies upon a couch from half to one hour to cool and rest. This bath is an expensive luxury, and not within the reach of rich or poor in any but our larger towns and cities.

A turkish or thermal bath at home, with a simple and inexpensive apparatus, has equal value as a hygienic or therapeutic agent. Any woman with ordinary common or nurse sense can give these baths satisfactorily by observing the following directions:

Take a chair with a wooden seat, an armed office chair preferable, place in it a piece of flannel blanket so folded that it will fall down in front; under the chair put a coffee cup one-third filled with alcohol. If any other vessel is used, be sure the opening is no larger than a cup, as this gives sufficient surface for the combustion of the amount of alcohol; have a foot tub in front of the chair, with warm water for the feet.

The patient is seated in nature’s raiments only, or as Mark Twain says, “in her complexion,” enveloped closely in woolen blankets. One of these is put over her in front and the other at the back, outside of the chair. After she is seated and covered, light the alcohol with a taper. Don’t risk burning yourself by using a match. The subject will begin to perspire in from three to five minutes. If blood rushes to the head, giving a red face and feeling of fullness in the brain, put a napkin round the neck, wrung from tepid water. This is better than wetting the head, and it has the advantage of not taking the “crimp” out of her hair.

If she is faint or sick at the stomach, as one may be with the first bath, or very bilious, let her drink copiously of hot water or very weak ginger tea. If the perspiration is slow in starting, or if the heat is excessive, the surface may be bathed with a sponge dipped in cold water. Let her remain fifteen to twenty minutes, or longer if necessary, to induce copious perspiration. She can then be bathed and rubbed sitting in the chair. If weak, or if longer perspiration is desired, let her lie upon bed or couch enveloped in the blankets, where she can be bathed under cover if necessary. Let the manipulation be thorough. Squeeze, press and pinch every muscle in the body and spat the surface with the ends of the fingers, having the wrist free. Using the entire arm and palm of the hand makes hard work, and does not give good results. If the attendant is magnetic, the fingers cause tingling, like hundreds of needles. Let the patient lie for an hour after this treatment to rest, cool and sleep.

How readily and easily this luxury and remedial agent can be carried into every home! The apparatus required is simply a wooden-seated chair, two and a fraction woolen blankets, an old cup, a foot tub and five cents’ worth of alcohol.

This bath should be taken at least two hours after eating. If taken sooner, it is nearly impossible to induce perspiration, besides interfering with digestion. For invalids, the preferable time is about ten or eleven in the forenoon. The business man or woman can take it upon rising in the morning, or just before retiring. If necessary, one can go out immediately after the bath. There is no danger of taking cold if one is bathed in cold or tepid water, and has thorough massage.

As a sanative measure the Thermal Bath can be taken at least once a week; for diseases, the frequency depends upon the case.

It is not weakening. Invalids, unable to sit up, gain strength with the daily use of this bath. In the first renovating process that is induced, one may have a sense of weakness or faintness, similar to the effects of medicine that rouses up the vital functions, but the cases are rare that this does not pass off in a few hours, leaving a corresponding gain. The Thermal Bath is valuable in health and disease.

1. It cleanses and promotes the healthy action of the skin as no other bath can do, thus relieving the other excretory organs.

2. It equalizes the circulation of the blood, and removes all local congestions of any and every part, which is one of the most important things to be accomplished in the treatment of diseased conditions.

3. It is the quickest, easiest and most effectual means known to man for purifying the blood. It literally washes the blood of its impurities. The patient drinks pure water, it is absorbed, passes into and mingles with the blood, by which it is carried to the capillary network of the skin and poured upon the surface in the form of perspiration; not pure as when it was taken into the stomach, but mingled with the impurities of the blood. If this were its only use, the Thermal Bath would be invaluable.

4. It soothes and tranquilizes the nervous system, sweeps the cobwebs of care from the brain, leaving it clear and refreshed.

The Thermal Bath is specially useful in the treatment of all diseases arising from impurity of the blood, inactivity of the skin, local inflammations, or unbalanced nervous action. It is invaluable for Drug Poisoning, Scrofula, Consumption, Diseases of the Skin, Dropsy, Remittent and Intermittent Fevers, Coughs, Colds, Catarrh, Croup, Gout, Rheumatism, Neuralgia, Diseases of the Liver and Kidneys, Bronchitis, Chronic Diarrhea, etc.

The thermal bath will break up a cold in its first stages, and at any time it will give certain alleviation. For ague it should be taken about the time the chill is anticipated, and given thoroughly. The cases are rare that will resist the third or fourth bath, using no other means.

In chronic rheumatism it has no equal in therapeutics. For this it can be taken every day. Some have taken twice a day with benefit. Cases long resisting all other methods of treatment have been entirely cured by this bath.

Most eruptive diseases are helped by it. A lady had salt-rheum all over her body. A ten-cent piece could not be laid on a spot free from eruption. She took these baths daily for three months, without any other remedy, and cured herself. She gained in strength, flesh and appetite, and besides, found herself freed from many minor ailments.

The Thermal bath is valuable in pregnancy, when there is dryness of the skin, coldness of the surface, with sensitiveness to cold. If the pregnant woman has any of the diseases mentioned above, she will find this bath just as efficacious as if she was not enciente. She should have a good, skillful attendant, and take ample time to rest after it. Do not fear disastrous results. Ladies have taken them once or twice a week during the entire pregnancy with benefit. The following testimonials only emphasize what they have written.

They purify and invigorate.—D. Wark, M. D.

Unsurpassed, as combining luxury and utility.—R. M. Lackey, M. D.

The Turks have always considered the public baths of Constantinople as supplying the place of a certain number of hospitals, which would otherwise have to be built.—Dr. Haughton.

Ladies, note this: The use of the Turkish bath renders the complexion more delicate and brilliant—the eye becomes clearer and brighter—the whole person is rendered fragrant, and all personal charms are enhanced.—Dr. Barter.

After a day of labor and care, which had quite exhausted me, I have just taken one of the Turkish baths, and come out feeling as completely rested as when I arose from my bed in the morning—in short, as good as new.—L. H. Thomas, M. D.

The only sure cure for a cold is the Turkish bath. It opens the pores and starts the system afresh into working order. I cheerfully commend it, even to persons in good health, as the best means to keep the secretions healthy.—Dr. D. F. Clinton.

Rely upon it, it is the ne plus ultra of baths.—Dr. J. E. Westervelt.