Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency)Alsaker, Rasmus Larssen
Science
Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency)
Alsaker, Rasmus Larssen
Diet; Hygiene
A glass or two of buttermilk will make a good meal at any time. Dr.
Waugh, who has had over forty years of experience and is well and
favorably known on both sides of the Atlantic, recommends buttermilk
very highly during pregnancy. Buttermilk and clabbered milk are better
than the sweet milk. The lactic acid seems to have a sweetening effect
on the alimentary tract. Sweet milk is constipating for many people. The
buttermilk and the clabbered milk are not constipating to the same
degree.
The use of fruit and vegetables has a tendency to prevent constipation.
The only internal remedies for which there is any excuse are cathartics,
and normal people do not need them. However, it is better to take a mild
cathartic or an enema than to allow the colon to become loaded with
waste. Constipation among eaters of much meat is rather a serious
condition, for the waste in the colon of heavy meat eaters is very
poisonous. The colonic waste in vegetarians is not so toxic.
Desserts should be used sparingly and seldom. They are not a necessity,
but a habit, and if they are consumed daily they are a bad habit.
For the sake of the unborn child, avoid all stimulants and narcotics.
Alcoholics and coffee should not be used. And it is best to avoid strong
spices and rich gravies. A little self-denial and self-control in this
line will pay great dividends in healthy, happy, contented babies, and
there are no greater blessings.
The mother should be active, but should not take any violent exercise.
Light work is good, but no mother should Be asked to do house-cleaning
or to stand over the wash-tub. She should have the opportunity of being
in the open every day, and of this opportunity she should avail herself.
Why some women are ashamed of pregnancy is hard for normal-minded people
to understand, for the praise of motherhood has been sung by the
greatest poets and its glory depicted by the greatest painters of the
world.
This sense of false modesty is responsible for much of the tight lacing
during pregnancy. This is injurious to both the mother and the child,
and is one of the reasons for various uncomfortable sensations. It helps
to bring on the morning sickness. It is nature's intention that the
young should be free and comfortable previous to birth, and for this
reason a double bag is supplied between the walls of which there is
fluid. The baby lies within the inner bag.
The tight lacing prevents the intended freedom, besides weakening the
mother's muscles. It also aggravates any tendency there may be toward
constipation and swelling of the legs. It prolongs childbirth and makes
it more painful. This is too high a price to pay for false modesty and
vanity.
If it is necessary to support the abdomen and the breasts for the sake
of comfort, this can be done without compressing them and the support
should come from the shoulders.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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