PART II MOTHERHOOD (Part 4)

the milk, but it may be less pleasant to drink. To two cups of blood-warm milk add one dessert- junket spoon of liquid rennet. This should stand in a moderately cool place, until it sets in a curd, when it may be chilled. It may be varied by the addition of sugar, and flavoring in the form of coffee, co- coa, or wine. It may be served with or without cream. AILMENTS OF PREGNANCY 215 men water Half a pint of cool water and the white of an Aibu egg are shaken thoroughly in a sealed jar. A little salt, sugar, or lemon-juice may be added to make the dish palatable. Cut half a pound of steak about three-quarters of an inch thick from the top of the round. . Wipe the Broiled meat, remove the fat, and sear over hot coals, in a essence pan or in boiling water. After continuing this cooking for about three minutes, cut the meat in small pieces and gash two or three times on each side. The juice may be pressed out either with a lemon-squeezer or with a A Meat Press machine especially made for the purpose. Season with salt and serve cold. If it is reheated the juice is very liable to coagulate. Cut in one-third inch strips a small piece of steak from the top of the round. Scrape, season with Scraped salt and pepper, and spread over thin bread-and- sandwiches butter sandwiches. Remove the crusts and cut in triangles or fancy shapes. 216 MOTHERHOOD SPECIAL RECEIPTS— IN DIARRHCEA Mix two teaspoons of Bermuda arrowroot in cold Arrowroot water, to form a thin paste. Add to one cup of boil- gruel ing water, and cook ten minutes. Season with salt and add cream if desired. The addition of half a stick of cinnamon gives a little more character to an insipid gruel, and the spice tends to restrain the action of the bowels. A little caution should -be used in giving an excess of starches in liquid form, because they do not re- main in the. mouth long enough to come into contact with the digestive fluid, and so are passed along to the intestines, giving them an extra amount of work. If this caution is kept in mind and the liquids are held in the mouth for a moment and mixed with the saliva, their digestion will at least begin. Scald two cups of milk and add one Boston cracker Cracker rolled and sifted. Cook in a double-boiler for five grue minutes. Salt to taste. Cut bread in thin slices, put in a pan and -dry Toast water thoroughly in a slow oven. Break in pieces, add an equal portion of boiling water and let it stand for one hour. Strain and season. Wash thoroughly a dozen and a half of clams. Clam-juice Cook in a covered kettle with three tablespoons of water, till the shells open. Remove the clams and strain the liquor through a double cheesecloth. SPECIAL RECEIPTS— IN CONSTIPATION The coarse breads, as I have said, are especially beneficial in constipation. Bran biscuits recommend themselves on this account, though they are not a particularly palatable article of food. The graham AILMENTS OF PREGNANCY 217 biscuits depend solely upon the heat for their light- ness, and should be simply two crusts if they are properly made. Mix together one pint of bran, half a pint of flour, Bran and one even teaspoon of baking soda. Add this to half a pint of milk and six tablespoons of molasses. Bake in gem-pans. Two cups each of graham flour and cold water. Graham * ° biscuits Mix well, add half a teaspoon of salt, and drop into hot buttered gem-pans. Bake in a very hot oven. 10 Vol. 3 Ill PREPARATIONS FOR CONFINEMENT Preparations for the Mother— Baby's Wardrobe— List of Clothes— The Nursery Furnishings PREPARATIONS FOR THE MOTHER IT IS well to begin the preparation of necessary things early, because their making often seems more of a burden later, when the increased weight and size make it difficult to move about. It is perfectly possible to keep the mother and all cieanii- her surroundings clean and comfortable during and comfort after delivery, and it is equally possible to make that possible during period one of discomfort and uncleanliness. Much and after depends upon the preparation she has made, and upon the understanding of those who care for her. She should have five or six dozen — more rather The num- than less — napkins or sanitary pads for herself. makiag These should be burned after use, and therefore sanitary should be made either of old linen or soft muslin, or pads 0f cheesecloth and absorbent cotton. These latter will cost about four cents apiece if made at home. The cheesecloth or gauze should be cut in half-yard squares, and folded with absorbent cotton inside. With pieces of cheesecloth one-half yard wide it is quite possible to make the napkins without sew- ing. In the larger drug stores one can buy rolls of absorbent waste, which serves as well as the regular absorbent cotton and is ten cents a pound less in price. The pads should be made of two grades, two dozen two inches thick being needed for use while (218) PREPARATIONS FOR CONFINEMENT 219 the discharge is profuse. The others may be half the thickness. These pads should be sterilized by steaming for an hour, and then drying in a hot closet. The best How to plan is to wrap these in packages containing six, in the Vani- squares of muslin. Then they can be conveniently tary pads sterilized and only one bundle opened at a time as they are needed. If a regular steamer is not avail- able the dressings may -be wrapped in bundles and suspended from the cover of a wash-boiler — hang- ing just over the water. After the hour's boiling they may be taken out and dried without removing the wrappings. If quantities of old sheets are kept on hand, the regular bed-linen can be saved, and the washings Use of old made considerably smaller. One sheet may be used on the bed at the time of delivery, and burned after- ward. Others can be cut in squares, folded, and laid under the patient as a protection to the draw- sheet. Small pads are more easily washed, and can be changed when soiled with less inconvenience to the patient. Pads to use under the mother during labor are made of cotton or jute or other absorbent material. Use of They should be about three inches thick and two or l^dl 1Z three feet square. If several of these are prepared they can be used to absorb the discharges and to protect the bed. They should be sterilized with the other dressings. The majority of physicians require an abdominal binder as a support for the contracting uterus, and How to for comfort as well. This should be made of un- abdominal bleached muslin, a straight double band about four- binder teen inches wide and long enough to go about the body, lapping several inches. Three will be enough 220 MOTHERHOOD The use of short night- gowns The rub- ber sheet and its substitute The need of a bed- pan if they can be washed often. It is generally con- sidered necessary to wear them about five days, although sometimes the comfort of a firm support around the body is so great that they are kept on till the patient leaves her bed. Unless short night-dresses are very distasteful and uncomfortable, it will be found extremely con- venient to cut off the skirts of two or three old gowns, open them down the front, and use them for the first two or three days after confinement. The discharge is profuse, so that if the night-dress is pulled down behind it will surely be stained, and the frequent changing is rather an exertion at the first, while the short gown can be slipped on very easily, with no straining at all. It may be necessary, if one of these garments is worn, to keep a small piece of cotton blanket or outing flannel spread di- rectly over the knees, since the exposure is unusual. A nightingale, or loose dressing jacket, and bed- room slippers will be needed. A rubber or oilcloth sheet to protect the mattress should be three feet wide and long enough to stretch across the bed and tuck in or pin at the sides. The oilcloth is less expensive, and serves equally well, though it very quickly becomes cracked and worn. A pad of newspapers may be used in an emergency, and answers the purpose very well if made thick enough and carefully placed. A bed-pan is needed, and it is well to avoid the old make, very low front and having an outlet in the back, for it is almost impossible to use it without spilling the contents in the bed. The regular douche- pan is very satisfactory from the nurse's standpoint, but some patients find it exceedingly uncomfortable. The "Eureka," a small pan, or the "Perfection," are PREPARATIONS FOR CONFINEMENT 221 both comfortable and convenient, which make their price less objectionable. A fountain syringe is also a necessity, and the "Eureka" Bed-pan douche-points should, if possible, be of glass, with tain three outlets in the tip, since these are superior in sy"nge tr' r and glass every way to those of hard rubber. It is easy to tell douche points "Perfection-;' Bed-pan when these are clean and they can be made perfectly sterile by boiling. THE BABY'S WARDROBE In the preparations for the baby it should be kept in mind that the object of clothing is to protect the Protect little body without impeding motion. A baby isDodyayS almost constantlv moving:, and bv this exercise the w,th°ut °' -' impeding muscles are growing strong and are gaining their its motion full development. Consequently clothing that re- stricts is just as injurious in its way as insufficient food. Simplicity is the next note to sound, for while 222 MOTHERHOOD Let the baby's clothes be simple; never elaborate Daintty materials Varieties in flannel The flan- nel bands Substitutes for the bands daintiness associates itself instantly with babyhood it is the simple rather than the elaborate daintiness which the clothing should express. The washing for a baby is no small consideration, and for this reason, if for no other, many frills and embroideries should be avoided. It is much more essential that a baby's clothing should be kept clean than that his petticoats should be trimmed or that there should be tucks and embroidery on his dresses. If one wishes to spend a deal of time and money in preparation it is pos- sible to put both into the quality of the fabric and the exquisiteness of hand-work. Nainsooks and dimity are the dearer materials, while Lonsdale or the fine-barred muslin makes less expensive dresses. The flannel, too, may range from the silk and wool stuff, at a dollar a yard, to outing cloth, at ten cents, and one can pay seventy-five cents apiece for silk and wool shirts, or make them of flannel for about ten cents. There should be four flannel bands, eighteen inches long and five inches wide. It is better to have them unhemmed, so that they may fit smoothly, for a baby's skin is so easily chafed and creased that all ridges and roughnesses in the clothing should be avoided. The bands may be left with raw edges for after washing the flannel fulls, so that there is little danger of raveling; or they may be finished with button-holing, which certainly makes them more at- tractive. Physicians differ as to the desirability of their use, and tight bandaging is no longer approved, the use of knitted bands, like little sleeveless shirts, being substituted for the flannel ones after the cord is off, and there is no need of a dressing. PREPARATIONS FOR CONFINEMENT 223 The diapers may be of cotton or linen diaper cloth, or of Canton or cotton flannel, the latter being The dia- rather the most inexpensive. These should be cut how to square, as they can then be folded more easily. It ma e is a good plan to make them in two sizes, small ones for first use being eighteen inches square, and the larger ones twenty-six inches. The small ones can be used to supplement the larger size when the baby is older, and they are much less clumsy at first, when all the clothing is hopelessly ample. It is wise to have some small pieces not larger than six inches square to use till the bowels have Baby's Band discharged the first black, tarry substance that fills Small them at birth. These may be old pieces of napkins oiTtaMe or table linen, and can be burned, as washing them jj"ee"t ^t is extremely difficult. As a matter of fact a great deal of labor can be saved if these pieces are always put inside the diaper to receive the discharge from the bowels. Thev may „ . ° J J Such use be made double, and can be more easily rinsed out also later and washed than the bulkier napkins. There should be between three and four dozen diapers, the number depending upon the facilities for washing. Ribbed shirts of silk and wool are very dainty and very expensive, and the all-wool shirts shrink a The baby's little in time, even with very careful washing. Cot- 224 MOTHERHOOD ton and wool is more serviceable and less expensive although hardly as warm. The only kind left to con- sider seems to be the little flannel sack with long sleeves, which can be cut after the pattern of the night-gowns, or even more simply, as shown in the cut. These sacks are very satisfactory, though of course they add somewhat to the work of prepara- tion. Four of these little garments are enough, for they are very easily and quickly washed and dried. A little Most of the mothers of the present generation sleeved used to wear little fine linen or muslin shirts, low- nedkedW" nec^e<^ and short-sleeved, in their own babyhood, garment and very often they will have one or more of them days in their possession. While we can not advocate their Baby's Shirt use as a regular habit, they are often of service dur- ing the summer if the baby is troubled with prickly heat or any such eruption. Remembering our statement that freedom of Condemna- motion is an important point to consider in preparing oidpinning tne baby's wardrobe, we must at once condemn and^tti- ^e old-time pinning blankets and petticoats with coat with bands. They are awkward to put on, and it is almost their sub- impossible to make them secure without pinning them too tight. It is much better for the baby and easier for the mother to put on dress and petticoat to- gether, and this is quite possible if the latter is made like a sack gown without sleeves, buttoning behind. There should be four of these made, as I said stitute PREPARATIONS FOR CONFINEMENT 225 above, either of silk and wool, all-wcol. or outing flannel. They can be made dainty to any degree, The mak- with embroidery about the hem and with the edges sack gown of neck and arms eye-scalloped and button-hole stitched, or they can be plain and simple, but they should if possible be finished with flat seams, opened and cat-stitched, so that there will be no ridges to make the baby uncomfortable. The skirt need not be longer than is necessary for warmth. Thirty- two inches from neck to hem ought to be sufficient Band Skirt length. Only one of these need be worn at a time, and no white skirt is needed. The little dresses may be made by a simple sack pattern, or with yokes. The yoked gown gives more The sim- opportunity for trimming, but the sack seems more dresses e suitable for the first slips. These can be finished with a bit of lace in neck and sleeves, and they do not represent the amount of labor in the making and after that the trimmed dresses do. Cleanliness, let me emphasize again, is the essential, 'and anything which makes that more possible should be considered. The number of dresses, as is true of all the articles, depends upon the amount of work, time, and money Tehre 0nfum" that the mother is able to give. One can keep a baby s°wnB 226 MOTHERHOOD fresh and clean with very few changes, if frequent washing is possible, but slips wear out quickly, and it may be as well from an economic standpoint to have a generous supply. Eight is a good number, and of these the plainest can be used in the summer for night-gowns when the flannel ones are too warm. They should be only a trifle longer than the petti- coats. Here we have the baby dressed, with due regard for both comfort and health. The little band, put on Petticoat Dress A dress for baby- founded on com- fort and health A flannel night-gown firmly, but not too tightly, the shirt and diaper, then the petticoat and dress, all supported from the shoul- ders, complete a costume which provides for the necessary activity of a growing child, which can be adjusted without discomfort to him or inconvenience to the mother, and which can he kept in order with comparatively little labor. At night a flannel night-gown should replace the petticoat and dress. Outing cloth is quite suitable for this, for the change is as much on the ground of fewer coverings as of more warmth. The one loose PREPARATIONS FOR CONFINEMENT 227 dress gives a little more room for relaxation, and it will also be found that it will save laundry work. A slip and petticoat can be