The patient should also be advised against trying to hasten labor by bearing down during first stage pains, since the only result at this time will be to waste her strength which will be needed later. This is one of the points that the nurse will do well to explain; that no voluntary effort on the patient’s part, during the first stage, will advance labor and if she tires herself by making such efforts before the second stage pains begin she will not be able to use them as effectively as she would were she in a rested condition. Bearing in mind the importance of conserving all of her forces, it is usually advisable for a patient in labor to have no visitors, particularly the type of person who would be likely to offer advice and gratuitous information. She should drink water freely and take some kind of light nourishment about every four hours. As pain of any kind tends to retard digestion, the diet during labor is usually restricted to fluids, such as broths, weak tea or coffee and sometimes milk or cocoa; while occasionally crackers and crisp toast are allowed. Whatever nourishment is given must be very light because of the probability of the patient’s vomiting and the possibility of her having to be given complete anesthesia before the termination of labor. The maternal temperature, pulse and respirations should be taken every two or four hours and the fetal heart rate from every hour to every two hours, according to the wishes of the doctor. The time at which the nurse should call the doctor is the subject of considerable discussion. Doctors never want to be called too late, neither do they wish to be called unnecessarily early, though they prefer to have the nurse err on that side, if at all. On general principles the doctor should be notified as soon as the patient goes into labor, in order that he may make his various plans with the pending delivery in mind. But if the nurse remembers that in primiparæ the first stage of labor usually lasts about sixteen hours and in multiparæ about eleven hours, she will realize that if the pains begin between the hours of eleven p.m. and seven a.m., and are of average character, mild and infrequent, she is not warranted in disturbing the doctor’s much needed sleep, unless he has explicitly requested her to do so. But under average conditions he should be notified by seven o’clock in the morning that the patient is in labor; at what hour the pains began; their character and frequency at the time of the report; the patient’s temperature, pulse and respirations and general condition and the fetal heart rate.