In the meantime the baby is lying on the foot of the bed with the cord connecting him with the placenta which is still within your uterus. Under no circumstances should anyone pull on the cord to aid in the expulsion of the placenta. It will come away, naturally, in due time. When the placenta is finally expelled, the third and last stage of labor is over. In case you and your cool-headed friend feel that something should be done, perhaps I would better assure you once more that when a baby is born so quickly and easily that he arrives before the doctor, you have cause for relief only—not anxiety. Practically the only unfavorable conditions which may arise are hemorrhage in your case and failure to breathe satisfactorily, on the part of the baby, and you and your cool-headed friend may as well understand how simply these possibilities may be met. Although, as everyone knows, there is normally a certain amount of blood lost at the time of confinement, varying from one half to one pint, this is accepted as a matter of course. A serious hemorrhage very rarely occurs because of one of Nature’s ingenious provisions. The tiny muscle fibers that make up the uterine wall run in every direction, criss-cross, up and down and around, forming a veritable tangle. After the placenta comes away, all of these little fibers contract, or grow shorter, and the result is that the muscles squeeze down upon the blood-vessels so tightly that they are closed and blood cannot escape. Accordingly, as long as the uterine muscles are contracted there can be no hemorrhage. The fortunate thing about this is that you can find out if they are contracted, and if they are not, you, yourself can stimulate them to do so. If you will press your fingers down deep into your abdomen, near the navel, you will feel the uterus as a hard round mass, which is often likened to a baseball. If it continues to feel hard and round there cannot be any serious amount of bleeding, but if it becomes soft, the tiny muscle fibers are relaxing their grip on the vessels and bleeding may possibly occur. Quite naturally the thing to do, then, is to stimulate the muscles to contract and this is done by kneading the uterus through the abdominal wall. You will feel it grow hard under your hand and then you will know that everything is all right. Your friend may want to bathe you and put on a pad but it would be better to leave this for the doctor or nurse for this reason: Childbed fever is the result of introducing infective material into the vagina. Remember that. If no germs gain entrance, there will be no childbed fever. When your baby came quickly and there was a rush of water, your vagina was well washed out. If you and your friend keep fingers and everything else away from the vaginal outlet and the area immediately surrounding it, it will remain clean and you need not worry about the possibility of infection.