Many doctors advise a warm, not hot, shower or tub bath every day, with soap used freely over the entire body, followed by a brisk rub. The best time for this warm, cleansing bath, as a rule, is just before retiring, as it is soothing and restful, and tends to induce sleep. Very hot baths are fatiguing, particularly during pregnancy, and should never be taken except with the doctor’s permission; but cold baths usually may be continued throughout pregnancy if one is accustomed to them and reacts well afterwards. Under these conditions the morning cold plunge, shower or sponge is beneficial, as it stimulates the circulation and thus promotes the activity of the skin. Some doctors forbid tub bathing of any kind after the seventh month, on the ground that as the expectant mother sits in the tub her vagina is filled with unsterile water and should labor occur shortly afterward an infection, or fever, might result. And as she is heavy and somewhat uncertain on her feet, there is also the danger of her slipping and falling while getting in or out of the tub. Other doctors permit tub baths throughout pregnancy, up until the onset of labor; while as to hot foot baths, since there seems to be no reason for or against them at any time during the nine months, they may be taken or not at will. Bathing in a quiet stream or lake is apparently harmless but sea bathing, if the surf is rough, is inadvisable because of the beating of the waves upon the abdomen and the general violence of the exercise. The importance of keeping the body evenly warm throughout pregnancy cannot be overemphasized, for a sudden chilling or wetting may so check action of the skin as to impose more of a burden upon the kidneys than they can meet, in their effort to throw off the skin’s share of the body waste. Accordingly, a single chilling will sometimes be enough to cause convulsions. This may be one reason why convulsions occur more frequently during cold weather or after a sudden drop in the temperature after warm or mild days. =The Bowels.= The bowels, also, throw off a certain amount of impurities and if they do not move thoroughly at least once a day these impurities may be taken into the system and again the kidneys be given extra work. Unhappily a great many pregnant women are constipated, particularly during the later weeks, while women who have always had a tendency of this kind may have trouble with their bowels from the very beginning of pregnancy. Your bowels should move regularly every day, and to this end you should attempt to empty them at the same hour each day, immediately after breakfast being the best time. The importance of regularity in making the attempt cannot be overemphasized, even though the bowels do not always move.