No quester for the Grail, No searcher for the Truth, Counts more than those who bear and rear And love and nurture Youth! Within her curving arm, All safe and warm he lies, The heir of all that Man has won Down countless centuries! PART V THE YOUNG MOTHER CHAPTER XIV. THE PUERPERIUM. Physiology. Involution. After-pains. Lochia. Loss of Weight. Menstruation. Lactation. Abdominal Wall. Digestive Tract. Temperature. Pulse. Skin. Urine. CHAPTER XV. ROUTINE NURSING CARE DURING THE PUERPERIUM. Complications to be Guarded against. General Treatment of the Patient. Nursing Care. Position in Bed. Sitting up. The Daily Bath. Diet. The Bowels. The Bladder. Catheterization. Temperature, Pulse, and Respiration. Care of the Perineum. Care of the Breasts. Lactation. Stripping. Abdominal Binders and Bed Exercises. CHAPTER XVI. THE NURSING MOTHER. Normal Routine. The Establishment of Breast Feeding. The Mother’s Frame of Mind and State of Nutrition. Method of Nursing. The Nursing Schedule. Personal Hygiene of the Nursing Mother. Diet. Bowels. Rest and Exercise. Recreation. Weaning. Drying up the Breasts. CHAPTER XVII. NUTRITION OF THE MOTHER AND HER BABY. Importance of Adequate Nutrition in First Weeks of Life. Necessary Elements of an Adequate Dietary. “Vitamines.” Danger of Deficiency Diseases. Danger of Conditions Approaching Recognizable Disease. The Deficiency Diseases. Scurvy. Infantile Scurvy. Corrective Diet. Beriberi. Xerophthalmia. Pellagra. Rickets. Corrective Diet. Application of Principles of Nutrition to the Diet of the Nursing Mother. CHAPTER XVIII. COMPLICATIONS OF THE PUERPERIUM. Postpartum Hemorrhage. Causes, Treatment and Nursing Care. Puerperal Infection. History of Disease. Prevention. Symptoms, Treatment and Nursing Care. Phlegmasia alba dolens, or “Milk leg.” Puerperal Mania. CHAPTER XIV THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE PUERPERIUM The puerperium[8] is ordinarily regarded as comprising the five or six weeks immediately following delivery. During this period the mother’s body undergoes various changes which restore it very nearly to its pre-pregnant state, leaving the patient in a normal, healthy condition. The most important of these changes are involution of the uterus, loss of weight and improvement in tone of the abdominal and perineal muscles. The alterations which produce this restoration are normal physiological processes, but mismanagement or lack of care while they are taking place may result in serious complications; these may be immediate or remote, such as hemorrhage and infection or chronic invalidism.