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                       MOTHER, NURSE AND INFANT:

                                A MANUAL

   ESPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR THE GUIDANCE OF MOTHERS AND MONTHLY NURSES,

                COMPRISING FULL INSTRUCTION IN REGARD TO

                Pregnancy, Preparation for Child-Birth,

                                  AND

                     The Care of Mother and Child,

    AND DESIGNED TO IMPART SO MUCH KNOWLEDGE OF ANATOMY, PHYSIOLOGY,
 MIDWIFERY, AND THE PROPER USE OF MEDICINES AS WILL SERVE INTELLIGENTLY
        TO DIRECT THE WIFE, MOTHER AND NURSE IN ALL EMERGENCIES.


                        BY S. P. SACKETT, M. D.

                               NEW YORK:
                      H. CAMPBELL CO., PUBLISHERS
                           140–142 NASSAU ST.
                                 1889.




                           COPYRIGHTED, 1889,

                                  —BY—

                             S. P. SACKETT.

                         _All rights reserved._


 PRESS OF E. D. NORTON,
     ITHACA, N. Y.

------------------------------------------------------------------------




                                PREFACE.


The object of the author in writing this volume is to offer to nurses,
and especially to those women who desire to make “monthly nursing” a
vocation, the instruction which they need for that purpose, sufficiently
illustrated and at a moderate price.

The book is written under a firm conviction in the mind of the author
that a work of this character is needed at the present time—a work that
combines some information to the monthly nurse in regard to her peculiar
duties with considerable instruction in midwifery. He has many times
heard inquiries made for a book of this kind and has not been able to
point to one of the character desired. He has learned during the
forty-five years that he has practiced medicine in a small city and its
vicinity, that mother and nurse are often combined in the same person.
The important duty of nursing the sick is so generally performed by
mothers, that they also, as a class, require some scientific knowledge
to be acquired by means of plain, practical instruction. And, in fact,
throughout our country, every mother is liable, in an emergency, to be
called upon to fill the office of an accoucheur.

For the professional nurse, such technical and accurate knowledge should
be considered indispensable. The training schools for nurses in some of
our largest cities are doing a noble work, and are elevating the
standard of requirements for those who seek this field of true womanly
labor. But comparatively few of the many thousands who follow this
vocation are able to attend such schools; yet they are willing and
desirous to learn. Women seem instinctively to desire such knowledge. A
proper effort to place within their reach the means of obtaining the
necessary technical knowledge for their work, and especially for the
work of the nurse who attends upon the mother in childbirth, will not,
the author trusts, be deemed presumptuous. There are many excellent
nurses, who have become so without the aid of training school or such a
book as this, but it is hoped that this volume may make the acquirement
of the necessary knowledge more easy and furnish ready information of
value to those nurses who are most thoroughly perfected in their work.
Physicians, they will find, stand ready to aid them. The attending
physician, as a rule, may be depended upon to give such help as may be
necessary to the understanding of the instructions here presented, and
through their cooperation the number of earnest students in this
department of womanly labor may be multiplied.

The author, during the preparation of it, consulted many writers upon
obstetrics, medicine and nursing; and it is only because it would not be
compatible with the size of this volume, that he has not made frequent
references to these excellent works. But all that he has written has
been founded on his own knowledge, experience, and observation, while it
coincides with the expressed opinions of others who may be considered
good authority. In only two or three things has the author ventured to
advance beyond others.

                                                                S. P. S.

 ITHACA, March, 1889.




                               CONTENTS.


    Introduction                                                  9


                                PART I.

                      PREGNANCY AND CONFINEMENT.

                              CHAPTER I.

    Conduct of the Mother before and after Marriage              13

                              CHAPTER II.

    Conduct of the Mother during Pregnancy                       18

                             CHAPTER III.

    Diseases of Pregnancy                                        22

                              CHAPTER IV.

    Instructions to a Woman during the last stages of Gestation  26

                              CHAPTER V.

    Directions to the Monthly Nurse                              33

                              CHAPTER VI.

    Care of the Mother during Labor and Confinement              36

                             CHAPTER VII.

    Directions to the Nurse during the month                     43


                               PART II.

    ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE FEMALE ORGANS—FŒTAL DEVELOPMENT.

                              CHAPTER I.

    Of the Pelvis                                               